Jazz Green : Artist Journal

Posts tagged ‘works in progress’

on making art again

November 24th, 2011

making art again…

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with a fork…

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most artists think a lot about what art is (and what isn’t art). most artists also think alot about what other people think about art, and how other people might understand or respond to art. making art is never just about making art.

some of this thinking about making art happens when actually making the art – starting a conversation about the making and meaning of art. artists sometimes call these conversations dialogues when they become more complex. dialogues may involve other artists or other things to do with the making of art.

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i wonder if making art is still mostly understood (by most people) to be about the creation of an object or series of objects for visual or tactile consumption – and whether contemporary art which embraces other media such as music, film, installation or performance is adequately described with the single word, art. has the word art become ineffective in describing all of these varied creative outcomes? what do other people who don’t make art themselves think art is? why is art perceived differently to craft?

most artists want to make art that expresses or concretizes a personal feeling or opinion about something. most artists (but not all) also want to create art that lasts for a very long time. much work goes into the restoring & conserving of old works of art so that we can experience the artworks as the artist had originally created them (at least, we assume so). so, it’s very easy to think art is about the making of an object to express a meaning or concept which will last for a long time.

however, sometimes art is made to be ephemeral in intention or experience and a memory might be the only enduring record of it. for art that isn’t made to last, it is often documented by video or photographs a book, so that the art endures (or is at least remembered) in a more concrete form. sometimes the ritual of making art is a big part of the art and there is less concern for making an end object.

films are sometimes made as art and much like regular films they may be experienced once only. some people might watch films again (but rarely repeatedly, unless they have access to the film or it is permanently ‘installed’ in some way). sometimes art is also expressed through sound or music, and music is usually composed to be performed, listened to and experienced more than once.

similarly, writers or poets aim to publish their work so that lots of people will read their words for many years to come. a performance of words can also be art. all art needs a context and an audience to appreciate it, so art is perhaps more a desire to perpetuate a thought or opinion through whatever means are most appropriate and not so much about the making of an art object.

however, it would seem that most of the time art is created as a physical, tangible object of some kind, one which is made to be experienced by others and also made to last for a long time, but sometimes it isn’t. most people like art for the pleasure it gives in directly experiencing it, sometimes over and over again. this would require an object form of art, although film or performance give an objective expression of art, or a representation (or simulacrum) of a concept or an experience of art. art books are sometimes a substitute for such an experience, although a book as an object can also be art. it is the form or object of the art that brings the original concept into being as art.

the experience of art (or the art object) is an integral part of the art becoming art, which leads to appreciating why the artist made the art and then perhaps wanting to know more about how art is made.…

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the real lends itself to unending exploration; it is inexhaustible.

maurice merleau-ponty

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some things i have been working on

June 27th, 2011

an old sheet, pinned up on the wall, especially framed for a sunday viewing…

[sheet pinned to a wall, 2011, mixed media on cotton]

in the lower section of this large abstract painting, we see a delicate layering of muted colours, a dash of yellow interacting with its colour complementary, a violet grey. notice how some colours have subtly stained the fabric, creating a halo effect or aura. this appears to be a very meditative & complex painting, lyrical abstraction doing what it does best, skillfully combining philosophical thought with material process…

let’s take a closer look at this work. in this section of the composition, a solid coal-black shape is juxtaposed with its nemesis, a rising trail of smokey grey, and a deft flick of verdurous green entering the picture plane lower left could allude to the possibility of regeneration from the contaminated ashes. it would seem that all aspects of mankind’s material world are exhibited here – from fossil fuels and their pollutants to the transient, small elements of nature in the quiet unfurling of a leaf…

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moving on, we arrive at an intriguing abstract composition, which finds a compelling reference to american action painting, but it also suggests the philosophical exploration of a distant galaxy, looking to outer space, constellations, the milky way, pushing beyond the known planetary frontiers. this is a painting that perceptually ponders on the big questions in life, the universe and just about everything else. the work is made complete by the antique gold frame, reinforcing the ideological concept of travelling through the continuum of space & time…

[cosmic rhythm I, 2011, acrylic on tempered glass, dimensions unknown]

on closer inspection, one can delight in the visual intensity of the overlapping & colliding discs and platelets of rust, olive, ochre, mauve, white and grey, which have some echoes of patterns & forms found in nature..

the artist’s hotplate; it’s a very useful (and used) working surface…

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is this a referential nod to van gogh’s chair? (but this is a stool, and it’s missing a pipe and tobacco)

[still life of a painter's stool, 2002 to now, mixed media on wood]

this is an early work on wood, one of a series of studio still lifes, realised at around the same time as still life of a painter’s jug. it exhibits a characteristically reworked, encrusted surface. the artist has said of this work: ‘it deals with the notion of correct placement, alignment and subsequent action within a given space, positioned diametrically between the opposing forces of standing up and sitting down. it seeks to answer the perennial question – am i sitting comfortably? i also view it as a personal benchmark of my creative process, as it supports the works i make, although i wouldn’t put it on a pedestal’…

above, a close-up of the dense, layered surface. below, a serendipitous spot of vermillion red immediately draws attention to the small smatter of paint, implying some key pointers to the artist’s influences, including impressionism, abstract expressionism and post-op art. there is a discreet, psychologcal hitchcockian reference too…

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here is the artist’s painting chest (or storage trunk). apparently, no paints are stored in here, but it is a good height on which to place painterly-type things while working on a painting. this seemingly accidental composition of small vessels and green drapery draws some interesting parallels with flemish still life painting and also the paintings of cézanne, reminding one a little of the unfinished painting ’still life with water jug’ in the national gallery, london…

[still life with plastic pots, 2011, dimensions variable]

to the rear of this composition one can just make out a long strip of white paper  – the loose, gestural brushmarks serendipitously also echo those of the aforementioned cézanne painting…

and seen here, more freely applied brushstrokes and energetic daubs of paint, in a visual concordance of violet-brown and green-grey, the artist’s chosen colour palette of the day…

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in this particular work, the artist has explored the transparent new media of acetate film, incorporating chance and process to realise the final composition – it’s a readymade, reusable painting palette – a robust and yet highly flexible surface to work on…

[watching paint dry, acetate film; about four and a half minutes]

after studying the intricate surface patterns & textures evident in this small celluloid artwork for only a short while, one could easily be reminded of max ernst’s surrealist abstract landscape paintings – a primordial forest or an apocalyptic vision…

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last weekend i started and finished a painting (for a change). i first pinned a piece of canvas to the wall (on top of the dust sheet exhibited above). i worked into the wee, small hours to try to finish this painting. it is difficult to paint under artificial lights. i stretched the canvas afterwards, then varnished the painting. the painting was an enjoyable exercise in trying out a representational way of working but i am not that happy with the outcome; the dimension and scale feel wrong, it has become too dark & murky, the surface is too shiny and the texture of the canvas interferes with the transparent layers of paint. this painting is nonetheless appropriately titled, in all regards & references, green water…

[green water, acrylic on canvas, 60cm x 100cm]

[green water, detail]

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current exhibitions

Reunion Refresh @ Reunion Gallery, 5 Feb – 22 Oct 2011

HWAT exhibition 2011 @ Harleston Gallery, 18 June to 11 July 2011

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re: surfacing, once again

August 20th, 2010

resurfacing, from some dark days spent in the artist’s studio… it has been raining quite a lot lately but today was bright and breezy. august is now always such a washout; it never used to be like this. i have lots of green tomatoes but no chutney jars…  listening to the evening breeze, it could almost be the rushing sound of the sea in the distance…


some paint pots and some paint brushes

some works that are still in progress…

actually, i have left these two paintings (the lichenscapes) well alone for the last week, concentrating instead on finishing some smaller pieces…

these are (or will be) mouldscapes…


some small paintings drying on a washing line

these are looking quite mouldy but they are not at all mouldy… sometimes deep within this stuff lies a cure, a solution, the answer – it’s mould, but it’s not always bad… i had brief dip into charles darwin’s the formation of vegetable mould 1881, the natural formation of mould as in the breakdown of organic matter (green manure) to produce a friable, fertile soil and earthworms’ vital part in this process… darwin studied worms very closely and deduced they had no true sense of hearing (although they are sensitive to vibrations) – he wrote extensively about his observations & many experiments, but without (obviously) any intentional humour:

They took not the least notice of the shrill notes from a metal whistle, which was repeatedly sounded near them; nor did they of the deepest and loudest tones of a bassoon. They were indifferent to shouts, if care was taken that the breath did not strike them. When placed on a table close to the keys of a piano, which was played as loudly as possible, they remained perfectly quiet.

[from charles darwin, the formation of vegetable mould, 1881]

it does conjure up quite a comical scene – and i presume it was darwin loudly playing the bassoon…

so, back to the mouldscapes – perhaps i should work on dreaming up more lyrical titles for these? someone once wrote in an exhibition visitors’ book that my work was refreshing in that it explained its source without recourse to the written word… although i do go some way (here at least) to explain the things that fascinate me and the parallel desire to make work (for want of a better word) about them; the processes and concepts merge to the point that neither can exist without the other.. i figure (or fear) i’ll forever be consumed by the processes of decay/change/renewal because it is a big subject to explore and each time one thinks one can do it better or differently… my concepts and reasonings for making art seem quite focused but i think (or procrastinate!) about working in different media, a different format or scale… when i look back at some of my student work i can see that the sculptural elements have also persisted but have never quite progressed into 3d…

i also made a fresh batch of handmade paper this past week… i was quite taken by the ordered but irregular, deckled edges as i stacked up the dried sheets, and the 3d form they constructed, creating a strata of sorts, a layering of a different kind (3d again, take note)…


a neat ‘n’ tidy stack of handmade, deckled papers

i also pursued some sketching, around the irregularity of forms and surface imperfections were/are still on my mind… can the indefinable wabi sabi aesthetic ever be deliberately crafted?


some sketchbook drawings

i am still working through these notions of imperfection, by creating a series of vessel-like forms – that is, i am quite clear about my intentions and reasons for doing so but have yet to construct them and i have not answered the repeated call for action on the matter… something for a future post no doubt, when the lichen/mould paintings are truly done & finished, and after the artworks group exhibition opens to the public in september – the current lichen/mould paintings will form the main body of new work for this show, but i will also submit some smaller pieces for the exhibition’s shop… watch this space…

i framed this intaglio collagraph print in preparation for a new exhibition opening at the harleston gallery next week (i have put in two other collagraph prints for the gallery’s browser)… the broad theme of this group exhibition is the allotments and i considered that this collagraph, as the composition evolved out of looking at the surface structures of old sheds & barns, just might fit the allotted criteria – although, having visited the local allotments just once (on the second occasion they were locked up) i did not see any ramshackle, old tin sheds, it was all rather neat and tidy…


an old tin shed, intaglio collagraph, 2010

the exhibition at the harleston gallery is called ‘breaking ground‘ and it will open on thursday 26th august, the private view is 6.30pm-8.30pm. the exhibition continues to 25th september 2010. if you are local to or perhaps just passing through the delightful, waveney valley, please drop in to see the exhibition – and, one could also partake in a nice pot of tea and some lovely cake from the gallery cafe…

i also applied to a professional artist mentoring scheme; my application was considered but i was not selected for the programme – i may write about that process in a future post, but the first thought that came to mind was must try harder. perhaps all i need to re-invigorate my work  and/or recontextualize my practice is an all-expenses-paid trip to the venice biennale – i would become more critically engaged with the ‘issues’ in contemporary art/painting – and i would also, probably, still be deeply enamoured by the distressed architecture, those old, crumbling facades with their outward appearance of a slow and very elegant decay…

no matter, i will continue to reflect on and write about art and painting, even if some of the creative musings don’t (yet) make it into finished artwork, they have been registered as having some potential at least, and myself the artist and my art will continue to exist, out here in the back of beyond…

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regular readers might notice that i have a facebook badge thingamy–>

i have just set myself up a little fan page, which pretty much just redistributes what appears here – the account for a page is very limited, which is perhaps a very good thing… and now it seems that i have three fans, so thank you! but if i get twenty fans i then facebook lets me personalise the page’s url!

i thought that having a professional ‘page’ was maybe the thing to do, the way to go, another platform for promoting the art, but now i am not so sure – i always have nagging doubts about these things… this week i heard on the radio that in the future people might need to create entirely new identities (as if some people haven’t already been doing this) for their own security, such is the vast amount of personal information that has already been distributed or shared online… you/we/i have all been warned… so, i will try out fb’s pages until september and then evaluate its true worth… all i ever planned to do was to have a nice artist portfolio website and this artist journal has become a naturally inclusive part of it, occasional musings and thoughts from the artist’s studio… and i have also been wondering, what will supercede the supersonic twitter, for soon enough something else will..?

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last chance to see… rebirth at the Art 1821 gallery – the exhibition runs until 8 september 2010…

next exhibition… breaking ground at the harleston gallery, 28 august to 25 september 2010…

coming up: the 11th annual artworks exhibition at blackthorpe barns, 11 September to 3 October 2010…

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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.