NOTES FROM THE STUDIO: A PAINTERS JOURNAL

Extract from the lecture, The Seeing Image 

 

It was through these five paintings that I learnt what was important to me in painting.

 

After really looking at these paintings  is committed to the communication of a state or situation through an image. In order for the image to carry that situation or state it needs a working active element.

 

I want to say a few words here about that working image.

 

In order to communicate state(s), the artwork is required to be active, working all the time.

 

It is often the case for me, that the success and failure of an image is its capacity to remain active and remain working, after I have physically stopped painting or drawing.

 

I know intimately the paintings if asked to ‘round-up’ a selected group. These are often the paintings I distinguish as possessing that active and working element that is integral to their remembering.

 

This may appear quite subjective. However I have tested this often with sets of three paintings. One painting painting what I believe as possessing the working element and it is surprising how many artists and students have highlighted the painting as that which is either most visually open and 4engaging.

 

When I look at Last Meninas by Diego Velasquez, which was painted in     , it is still at work. There is resilience to the very best images.

 

I am often asked why I returned to Painting after ten years working in photography, collage and film. The answer is relatively simple I had to

 

It seemed only logical that I would return to painting.

 

In painting the difference – the differences are obvious. It was unique and it always seemed to distance it from the other forms.

 

I do not believe I have looked more intensely than anybody else has but I have always been looking. The question I suppose is what is the nature of the looking and what do you see?

 

The first stage is the looking. The second stage is to see. The second stage is the painting. I paint in order to see. This is what happens when you make paintings. When making paintings you are on the way to seeing. I paint to see.

 

There is a stage after that and it can be explained in the old saying, “I see what you mean”. This stage I don’t think about much these days. As I have found for me it is enough to bring the various elements together without trying to predict or pre-empt how it will be understood. It is work for others if they wish to take it on.