Jazz Green : Artist Journal

Posts tagged ‘paintings’

when art is a waste of time

December 13th, 2011

when art is a waste of time…

signs of decay earth autumn

decay earth autumn leaves rust paintings

signs of decay earth autumn leaves rust paintings in garden

unwanted: abandoned paintings slowly decaying at the end of the garden… it’s what they would have wanted

abandonment, failure, reject, dismiss, neglect, waste, wreck, destroy, ruin, remains, debris, derelict, disintegration, deterioration, decay…

it was the early morning shock of seeing a thin film of ice on the inside of the windows that prompted a couple of snowy walkabouts this week… for some exercise, some fresh air, to warm up, an excuse perhaps to think more about and reconnect with this rural landscape…

suffolk snow landscape painting - sketchbook

a hill and some snow, acrylic on paper, 8″ x 12″

i carried with me a sketchbook (or three!) but, for a change, i took some small tubes of acrylic and a few offcuts of card. why on earth go out sketching in this inclement weather? well, the intention was to go for a bracing walk and the opportunity to do some outdoor sketching seemed like a good idea at the time… i just needed some white, brown, blue, a little yellow ochre… (you can view last week’s before the snow winter field sketches here)…

these three small sketches are about 5″ x 16″

suffolk snow landscape field - sketchbook

suffolk snow sketches - sketchbook

suffolk snow fields horizon - sketchbook

[click to view larger]

i discovered a new footpath which i had not seen signposted before, perhaps because all the surrounding vegetation that would have concealed it had died back. some farmers, it seems, don’t like to draw attention to the public rights of way that circumnavigate their fields. this particular footpath began at the roadside – it was a quick scramble up a steepish, stepped incline through a small thicket of elder, hawthorn, briar, bramble and the like, which soon thinned out onto a small footbridge across a ditch, which opened into the corner of a large field – regimental stalks of harvested maize pricking through the blanket of snow..

suffolk field snow landscape sketch

winter field with stubble, 8′ x 22″

i walked a narrow path between the hedgerow and the broken lines of sown crops, minding the occasional black hole which indicated a rabbit burrow. in the snow i could see the pitter-patter pattern of animal footprints, probably a dog i thought but i could see no human companion footprints -  were they the trail of a hare, a fox or muntjacs perhaps? the hedgerow seemed to have shaken off most of the recent snowfall and so it exhibited an interesting patchwork of textures and colours when viewed against the snow – from the sepia hues of damp, dead wood to the musty grey-black of dead nettles, small patches of fading green to grey, the auburn brown of tall docks, shades of bronze and tarnished copper on the edges of leaves, the prickly hawthorn branches dotted with red berries…

suffolk snow field hedgerow - sketchbook

field and hedgerow, acrylic on paper, 8″ x 12″

the line of the hedgerow led slowly uphill, then turned an abrupt corner at an oak tree – and hereabouts, sheltered from the chilled midday air with a scattered carpet of acorn husks underfoot, it afforded a clear view of valley ahead. smooth white fields, lightly traced out by their boundary hedgerows, sloped gently to the south and east, a distant cluster of trees merged into a mist of many layered greys. to the north the field’s straight crop lines seemed to converge at a point near the flat horizon, with only the faintest delineation of trees to suggest where the land ended and the sky began…

snow winter field sketch painting - sketchbook

winter field, acrylic on paper, 8″ x 12″

some people assume that suffolk is, in the main, quite flat, but this is because the most travelled routes follow more level ground. walk a little off the beaten track and the views become much more undulating and expansive – made even more appealing to the senses when there is snow on the ground. all seems for a short while quite serene, quite still. snow softens the sounds and disguises the blemishes, it sculpts and redefines, drawing out the best features of a seemingly natural geography…

perhaps on reflection it was not such a good idea to use acrylics as they did not dry properly in the ice cold air. to stop the sketchbook pages from sticking together i sandwiched them with maize leaves, powdery bark and even clumps of snowy soil, all of which had added some interesting textural effects by the time i had headed back. something of real substance to work with, so i applied more white acrylic here and there, the remains of soil and the blurry smears of paint became the tangible traces of walking. i rather like that they turned out this way, incomplete and unrefined, within each rough gesture or mark is a brief thought or memory that relates to the experience – exhibiting the very spirit of a brisk walk in the wintry, white landscape…

these two sketches are 8′ x 22″, on black card – it is (or was) a photograph album…

field snow landscape sketch

suffolk fields snow - sketchbook

[click to view larger]

so, these small studies have really become remembered landscapes, they no longer exist, the snow has now vanished, but we have been warned that the snow will return…

i often remind myself that i have become something of a cave painter – i see things (discarded, redundant or dead things, mostly!) and then i retreat to the studio cave to make art out of the experience. sketching in the landscape seems to be a means to re-engage but also to step back a little, to take in the wider view…

artworks, an exhibition

April 8th, 2010

Another farmscape, finished, box-framed and finally sent out into the world… (it’s a poor photograph due to it being hastily taken last night with a flash)…


[Farmscape II, chalk gesso and acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 120cm]

I will be exhibiting some works with the artists’ collective Artworks, at the Wingfield Barns Arts Centre. Artworks is a group of thirty professional artists based in East Anglia – covering the diverse practices of painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation art, ceramics, textiles and glass. The rural setting of the barns is fabulous for contemporary art – and there will also be affordable art for the smallest of budgets, including art cards, small 3D works and mounted drawings, paintings and prints for sale. The exhibition opens this weekend, and it runs from 10th to 25th April 2010, open daily 10am – 5pm.

As a new member of Artworks, I am looking forward to seeing the whole exhibition and meeting the other artists involved. During the exhibition some of the exhibiting artists will be doing art demonstrations – including myself – mine is loosely called building up textures – specifically to working on paper with mixed-media and monoprint techniques.

I trawled through some of my photos to find some images that I felt might explain how the abstract canvas above, farmscape II, came about… (not that I ever work directly from photographs; taking the photographs helps with the memory of a visual experience)…

some recent farm photographs…

Again, I see parallels with the pattern of the wider farmed landscape, which some choose to see as somehow naturalised, of the raw elements…


[norfolk field, winter]


[suffolk field, spring]

R.I.P. Malcolm McLaren

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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.