Jazz Green : Artist Journal

Posts tagged ‘collage’

for texture’s sake

August 25th, 2009

i have a few more small abstract paintings to show you… some new art for saleit’s just a colour thing…

three abstract paintings on paper - gold brown turquoise

rich brown autumn hues - works on paper - three small abstracts
[click to view more small abstract works on paper]

the above paintings are shown as triptychs, selected for their close colour harmonies and autumnal landscape hues… really pleased that around a quarter of this abstract series have found new homes, i have some listed on etsy, some in a couple in a gallery, three are in a shop window (more on that soon), and i still have about twenty that need to be scanned…

i hate composing 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 wrote this today… (the ongoing inspiration behind the small colour works on paper, aka the 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, as it’s serious, aside from the not to scale artist’s impressions of artwork in stylish virtual interiors, it’s 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 farmscape paintings are developing slowly, as i wait for the cooler hues of autumn and winter to pervade my colouristic senses.. at present they look bereft of colour – dark olive green, slate grey, ash grey-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..

textures in mixed media - torn paper, ink, acrylic
[monoprint, frottage, acrylics and chalk on torn paper... with exra crumple]

torn paper textures -ink acrylic on paper
[another one, this time backlit by sunlight, semi-transluscent]

abstract painting - adding more colour
[another one,with lime green textured underlay]..

as i am process driven, i like to work with materials and processes that directly control the visual outcome – i want encrustation, texture, layers, natural 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…

answers, on a postcard

June 17th, 2009

painting for salthouse 09 exhibition in Norfolk  - by fine artist Jazz Green
[another saltscape... 09 of 25]

15cm x 15cm, gesso and mixed media on wood panel, for the contemporary art exhibition salthouse 09 in salthouse church, north norfolk…

painting and haiku poem
[detail of saltscape IX; showing textures]

and yet another haiku style poem…

abraded, by seawater and salt
coarse skin, furrowed then frowned
at a more polished reflection...

as well as the exhibition salthouse 09, i am also participating in HWAT… there is a taster exhibition (opens on 20 June 2009) to coincide with the Art Trail which runs over three weekends from 27 June to 12 July 2009, … this large fiery red painting rost is in the preview exhibition…

red abstract textured painting by Jazz Green - rost
[a small detail of edgescape : rost; mixed media on canvas, 95cm x 95
cm]

small collages

a few of the postcard-sized collage works i’ve also made for the HWAT taster exhibition… mixed media collage on paper..

Of snakes and ladders

July 16th, 2008

Yesterday I saw a grass snake, the first in many years, at around 24″ long, he appeared languidly from behind some plant pots, taking a sun bath, but as soon as I moved in to view him closer he slithered away into the long grass… and with no camera, no photo opportunity. Significant perhaps as I was born in the year of the snake, according to the Chinese horoscope. Ah, the symbol of the snake; enigmatic, graceful, alert but cautious, astute and somewhat secretive.

Which leads me to think about the game Snakes and Ladders, a moral parable of the path of life, its ups and downs, of taking and giving, avarice and temptation versus piety and generosity of spirit. Life as an artist could be such a game, in which you climb selfishly to reach new perspectives, but one ladder will only reach so far and it is a singular adventure, many can help steady it, but only one will climb to the top. A sign perhaps that we need to to take risks, move out of the comfort zone, avoid falling into the easy trappings of formulaic and derivative work. It seems too, talking to other artists, that it is quite natural to have fallow periods occasionally, where the creative urge wanes and needs fresh input, or when you receive rejections which dent the spirit, or you decide to pursue ideas quietly without any reference to an audience (or an income).

I have been to see the Margaret Mellis retrospective and the Constructed exhibitions at the Sainsbury Centre and it was an eye-opener.

The exhibition is indeed a celebration of her life and her work. Reading and watching Mellis, it seems she became her most productive after the move to Southwold, the work beforehand being quite minimal and sparse in contrast (even the dates on the few earlier works displayed are vague). I found out much more about Mellis, such as she lived in a village not far from where I spent some of my childhood years, prior to moving on to the coast… her artistic productivity there helped no doubt by the numerous offerings of beach detritus from far and wide.

It is strange to think that she was creating these wonderfully colourful abstract constructions at a time when I struggled to find much joy in art classes at school, classes which consisted of drawing sliced cabbages and reflections of newspapers in chrome kettles… although I am grateful I persisted with a 2B pencil as my only medium at the time, since a myopic scrutiny of things is the eyesight of an artist.

Here are some of my own mixed media collages from the mid ’90s when I was known as Jasmine Green, of no relation at all to the delightfully scented tea. It feels especially fulfilling when you make connections between your own work and another artist’s many years after the event…

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The website of British Fine Artist Jazz Green MA RCA. Abstract landscape paintings, fine art photography. All images and text copyright the artist.