falls - in praise of haste
f a l l s - mixed media with ultramarine pigment on linen, 120 x 80 x 4 cm, 2023
The painting was made while preparing for an exhibition in France. Haste, well haste over a couple of months, was a virtue here.
Deep driving, coalescing ultramarine
As a rule I work in layers compacting and obliterating each other to coalesce in an often flowing cloisonné surface. In this case, the surface has remained open revealing both the ultramarine pigment ground and the unprimed linen beneath.
Such a beautiful blue deserves to be the main driving element. So my repertoire of resin, pigment and wax was kept to a minimum. The surface is loose leading the eye to the blue beyond. This has the effect of creating a large illusory space that is both deep and sensuous.
Falling, failing cellular embers illuminate
The islands and fragmented concentrated cells of matter are as if in motion, floating upwards to tumble gently down. I see this as motion through air not through water. Painted flat, when I first saw the piece upright, I saw the whole thing as in a falling direction, slipping down the canvas. But not as a torrential waterfall, but more as if embers and extinct fireworks were falling from the sky.
Indeed the painting might be the end of a flickering drama. It is the afterglow. The incandescent pieces undulate slowly. They look to join to one another but motion has set the globules and splatters free. Splashes of colours and worked densities remain weightless and unresolved.
Interestingly, the direction of the painting is different to different people. I am not a poetic painter. I consider myself a physical painter that is seeking out the poetry of the material itself. The distinction is important. But ‘Falls’ is my most poetically painted painting. I cannot really tell you why.
Quite simply the painting can be seen as a colour study made dynamic by a soft implied rhythmic motion of abstract cellular forms. An image pulled by an imaginary force ever so gently downwards.
Or is it praise to ultramarine’s endurance: colour of the robes of the Madonna, cousin of lapis lazuli, hue of sensual oblivion, blue’s most generous blue…