Most paint artists think about how beautiful their composition will be. I do.
Sometimes I’m evaluating a work asking myself this very question. The paintings I’ve catalogued in this article challenge the whole concept of traditional aesthetic beauty.
Consciously and subconsciously I decided to paint exactly as I wanted without personal critique.
For those who haven’t read my Instagram social media here is a little commentary I published, in bold and brackets:
[ Four drafts through the afternoon and evening timed at 21m03s, 21m07s, 19m01s and 17m50s, the latter adding in the gold around the UAP and making artistic adjustments. Approximately one hour nineteen minutes with one untimed change consisting of quickly fine tuning the ‘green-sea-space’ effect.
“Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena #1” builds upon my “Cavernous Red Blue Abyss” and ”Propulsion – Original“ artworks. It’s purposely strange/unusual in the manner of this art genre. Details either abstract or definitive for the viewer to decide.
I sought for Willem de Kooning and Frank Auerbach (specifically “Primrose Hill Study – Autumn Evening” [1979]) in style and texture. With any past/present master artists’ inspirations I always seek to create an original composition. Styles like theirs are incredibly difficult technically to produce.
The objective is to blow your mind figuratively speaking through raw creativity. ]
The wet paint in an unedited photograph for “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena #1” is theatrical to view. I feel the lighting for this artwork is important for an installation. Placing the light source above should suffice very nicely.
My thoughts are two types of viewing experience. Moonlight and Light-source-above. Personally I find the artwork utterly intriguing! Writing this article I needed to see UAP #1 again.
I’m proud of this piece. The textures have such motion.
Some one hour nineteen minutes for an artwork shining like a bright Star. Unusually unique. Different. Confounding. Unexplainable.
Yes please..
.. sorry, gifted.
Quotation from my Instagram social media, in bold and brackets:
[ “.. the iconography in “iM” is phenomenally fresh, clean and distinct.. i love it!!” – 11th August 2024.
“iM” is pure spontaneity, play with paint really. Symbology, themes and messaging with reference to my past & most recent works.
Please note both “ART LIFE M 314” and “iM” took within one hour seventeen minutes combined to paint from start to finish. ]
What do the symbols and iconography mean in “iM”? This is an area of art where I love art critics and viewers to internalize/externalize the personal commentary.
Let’s include “ART LIFE M 314” too for you to see:
Quotes for “ART LIFE M 314”:
[ “.. i noticed a ‘gun’ shape in ‘art life’, it is PURE chance 💯%. a piece of charcoal stick broke in my hands (end of gun looks like a bullet!), i didn’t even know this 🙉!! yes i heard some charcoal breaking, just not there. i have straightened the charcoal piece to appear as a bullet leaving the gun. cool huh 🎯. totally chance it became a bullet ^^. not certain how i ensure the charcoal piece is properly adhered to the painting (acrylic holds it there for now). i will look into this tomorrow 🎨 nb interestingly a wipe got totally covered in red making ‘art life’ and the charcoal pieces too. kind of cool i think.”
“i just worked some varnish into and around the charcoal ‘bullet’🏆”.. “.. nb these art after Willem de Kooning, Basquiat inspiration too with overpainted areas. who on Earth is going to believe the charcoal ‘bullet’ placement was pure chance lol 😆. the funniest thing is.. i didn’t even know I’d painted a ‘gun’ haha. then again a yoda in yellow flowered sun abstract, i mean really, how!! ♏️” ]
With “ART LIFE M 314” I just hoped people would ‘get’ the art. Thankfully, they did, including professional artists and writers.
It really is all about the (honestly) chance gun, (honestly) chance bullet and edgy Basquiat style. Ridiculous odds.
Ordinarily, if slowly working, this would seem unlikely. However I made these two artworks very quickly. I purposed for tiny bits of charcoal to be included in this piece along the black lines. Taking imaginative inspiration from Basquiat’s use of oil stick.
Most all black lines were the result of heavy-handedly scrawling charcoal onto the canvas. The sound of charcoal splintering against the canvas was something I can only describe as quite wonderful. Bits of charcoal in the paint, yes, yes, I said to myself! Wanting immediacy, no personal critiquing.
It’s likely the charcoal piece broke in my hands rather than against the canvas, as this happens all the time when I use charcoal sticks.
I don’t know how I didn’t notice the ‘bullet’ piece of charcoal. All I know is whilst reviewing areas on the whole canvas specifically for any significant pieces of charcoal I then realised quite a large piece of charcoal needed initially removing..
.. before quickly deciding this.. was.. absolutely.. perfect!
One hour seventeen minutes for both “ART LIFE M 314” and “iM”.
Quotation from my Instagram social media, in bold and brackets:
[ The first draft for “Island Anatomy” took 38m46s entirely of palette work.
Reviewing the artwork I wanted to soften the lines. Therefore I made very quick instinctive changes using an angled paintbrush in 5m04s.
I am absolutely delighted with the paintbrush effect throughout the piece.
Did I have anything in mind whilst painting?
- “Not specifically, shapes. I began to think of Greek sculpture after making the chrome-like textures. The shapes are <100% pure chance>.”
In the 5m04s second draft [within minutes of the first] I did purpose waves over the textures with the paintbrush. The distinct shapes already painted.
I feel this references my earlier works “Propulsion” and highlights inspired phases visual artists have. For me its rectangles, UFO shapes etc. Kind of like cravings some pregnant women experience.
To be honest I realise there are layers of conscious and intellectual thoughts resonating in this artwork.
In the working process I allowed myself to paint. This is how Andy Warhol also made immensely insightful diary entries. ]
To be clear, the shapes are all palette [knife] work. By pure chance I mean the construction as a whole rather than the individual shapes I made. The individual shapes are pure chance in that they did not represent anything specific at any time. Of course, I did make these shapes of my own freestyle working, by chance, by complete imagination.
I made two digital versions, interesting enough to publish:
“Island Anatomy – Monochrome” looks like night time aerial photography.
Please do click the image for “Island Anatomy – SolarScape” to see details. As a computer interested person, I find the colour interactions super delicious on this one. It gives a sense of the scientific, electron microscopy, atomic level organisms.
Personally I would love to see this print-painted with textures, then mounted behind the glass of a huge aquarium!
Why ever not, aside from the cost obviously lol.
The Unfathomable Artist 