i have just put some more small abstract paintings for sale on etsy… i have realised that as a british artist, it is quite difficult to get much exposure on a predominantly american site, but maybe in time it will function like ebay, where you can easily list, browse and buy by country…. i tweaked a few sections, item tags, titles and descriptions to better suit the art for sale… it’s a colour thing…
[click to view more small abstract works on paper on etsy]
the above are listed as triptychs, selected for their close colour harmonies, some autumnal landscape hues,.. around a quarter of this abstract series have found new homes, i have some listed on etsy, some framed, some unframed, a couple in a gallery, three vibrant ones are in a shop window (more on that soon), and i still have about twenty that need to be digitally scanned (better at close-up detail)..
i hate composing adequately succinct descriptions for my work, but new visitors to your art are helped by getting an insight into your inspirations as an artist… so i penned this today… (the ongoing inspiration behind the small colour works on paper, aka chromatids)..
These small paintings on paper are essences or distillations of rural landscapes, condensed colour experiments influenced by my visual experiences as an artist. I find colour inspiration in the environmental and elemental, from naturally eroded surfaces to discarded objects – often at the coast, inspired by beachcombing finds, the effects of sea erosion, water traces, strata, striations, from eroding cliffs to the shoreline – to the salt-encrusted patinas on boats or weathered facades at the harbour and quay side. Farm buildings, old barns and sheds, the slow appearance of decay in manmade and natural structures, the silent history contained in objects exposed to the elements, the intricate beauty in rust on metal, lichen on bark, moss on stone, water algae – and the more structured, geometric patterns of arable fields, farm tracks, fences or hedgerows on the horizon are also pictorial influences.
one thing that has made me giggle on etsy, but mustn’t laugh really, it’s serious, aside from the not to scale artist’s impressions of artwork in stylish virtual interiors, is the worthy COA or Certificate of Authenticity.. could someone pretend to be me and be selling some of my paintings? if so, get in touch, i’d like some of your business acumen… i think a personal handwritten note of thanks is much nicer and a little less formal proof.. it also has a signature..
the farmscapes are developing slowly, as i will wait for the cooler hues of autumn and winter to pervade my colouristic senses.. at present they look bereft of true colour – dark olive green, slate grey, ashen blue, taupe.. in truth, i lack the space to work on all ten at once, so it is a game of shuffle, hang up, put away, find again, which leads to a little reorganisation each time, and then i lose focus, lose the cohesion of the series..
so, in the meantime, i have been playing again with texture and torn paper, experiments on a small scale… i can’t seem to shake off the rustic, weathered and textured aspect to my artwork, and greatly enjoy the medium of collage, and want to revisit the spatial, scuptural elements of using layers, partially hidden, casting faint shadows, abstracts in low relief..
[monoprint, frottage, acrylics and chalk on torn paper... with exra crumple]
[another one, this time backlit by sunlight, semi-transluscent]
[another one,with lime green textured underlay]..
as i am process driven, i like to work with materials and techniques that in turn feed the visual outcome – i want encrustation, i want texture, layers, naturally derived colours, i want it to allude to something environmental or elemental in nature, but also existing completely within its own construction, with its own narrative, that requires time to unfold.. this is where my parallel interest in photography merges.. as an artist, i develop a close relationship with the textural qualties of materials, what i can do.. a painter has to takes risks, to push the process, it’s the primary obsession, the overall concept or idea is just that, an idea that you can’t plan objectively, clarify in words, theorise upon as a starting point, it needs to be explored and ultimately understood through the materials, the old adage, the medium is the message, not just texture, just for the sake of it.. one could always use the real thing, found objects, create assemblages and combines, but the individuality of the artist is somehow denied, often buried beneath the artwork’s fabric construction.. paint, like clay or charcoal, is a more elastic medium, it imparts a unique quality each time, the individual imprint of one artist at work…
p.s. i have disabled the comments feature (i may need to remove it completely) as my site was targeted by a pernicious spam bot, splattering its pseudo-medical potency supplies adverts, ten or twenty times in quick succession…
