“Comic Book Series [Letter M]” [2nd November 2024, photograph 4th November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic Pop Art painting on 100% pure cotton triple-gesso primed canvas board, 10 in x 12 in (25.4cm x 30.5cm), 6000 x 7261 pixels.
Quotation from social media in bold and italics:
[ I pre-doodled the letter ‘M’ in pencil on card and then set to work on a new painting.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M]” took two drafts each within approximately one hour. The first draft completed prior to 1550hrs, then the latter draft finissimo prior to 2235hrs. In the latter draft I carefully added the Mars Black outline for definition, finely adjusted the gold detailing and made ultra-finite balancing perfections to the lettered area.
Van Gogh-like impasto brushworking, vibrant comic book tones with stylistic fine art emotion in an artistically precise Pop Art piece.
There are six beautiful digital versions to compliment the Original acrylic painting. The six digital versions are individual works along with one six-grid collage in a three-across two-rows configuration. ]
Kind of awesome Pop Art isn’t it.
With my work I’m always requiring professionalism, high quality and artistic value as an artist. I love amazing you! I love amazing myself.
Would you like to know a secret?
The face in the centre is pure chance! True.
I only noticed this the next day (3rd November) after I photographed it academically. That is to say, not a quick draft evaluation photograph.
I made two palette knife scores in the style of the heavy impasto gold surround from “Golden Whale with a Voice”. An artistic decision I made for two reasons. Firstly, I love my palette working in that piece! Secondly, I had made this style of palette work in the prior draft to “Comic Book Series [Letter M]” and wanted to restore something from this in the gold.
The majority of the gold texture in “Comic Book Series [Letter M]” is produced through brushwork ‘fluting’, after careful palette knife placement of the gold.
Let’s take a look at my Collage 3×2 Grid here:
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] Collage 3×2 Grid” [digital artwork, 4th November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 300dpi, 9000 x 7238 pixels.
Be honest, this blows your mind, I hope.
The co-ordination of tones is my compositional choice to wow you✌🏽.
It certainly wows me!
Some time after making my works I often say to myself ‘Did [I] make this!?’ 🤯.
– ‘I did. It was me. I love art I do.’
You can see the individual Digital pieces BLUE, YELLOW, PINK, ORANGE, GREEN & PURPLE (corresponding to the background for each artwork) here:
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] BLUE” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
BLUE is brightly-dark.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] YELLOW” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
YELLOW is cheerily-sombre.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] PINK” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
PINK is vibrantly-sad.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] ORANGE” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
ORANGE is mellowy-unhappy.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] GREEN” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
GREEN is vividly-distressed.
“Comic Book Series [Letter M] PURPLE” [digital artwork, 3rd November 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 4798 x 5788 pixels.
PURPLE is interestingly-mooded.
These artworks were made to cheer our day no matter our circumstances. This is how I interpreted my subconscious feelings finding their way onto the canvas.
“Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider in Six-Grid Collage” [digital artwork, 9th/10th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, random acrylic red/blue to purple mixed paint on lined notepad into six-grid collage, 6480 x 5853 pixels.
From social media in bold and italics:
Quotation:
“.. I’m very eager for art writers to see a digital artwork I have just made. Having randomly mixed red and blue to make purple for a Pop Art piece [UN noise dash dot] on lined notepad paper yesterday.
It’s quite honestly a most unfathomable coincidence, beyond the planned construction of the six-grid collage itself from the photographed paper in my hand just now this afternoon.
After mixing purple and using the paint on the aforementioned Pop Art piece (yesterday) I viewed the sheet of paper, kind of liking the shapes I had pressed together, yet thinking none more to it..
.. saying to myself, ‘I shall try to make something of it. I would like to show people art can be made from seemingly nothing’. Yesterday I viewed photographic images of the [Indian] Gaur online.
I did this both some day before and after the purple mixing yesterday. Immediately after making the six-grid digital piece I realised inspired thought is somehow finding its way into my work.
The thing is I simply motioned my brush to mix paint, nothing more! When I pressed the wet leftover purple paint paper together at the middle, all I did was touch my finger at one non-painted side a number of times to cause a difference in the paint separation. Without any defined idea or concept.
I really cannot wait for art writers to see this work in its entirety, as I haven’t even photographed the upper-half of the pressed paper to-date. It’s absolutely ridiculous! I’m going to do so this afternoon or later.
It is a most random inspired work in my opinion.” – written by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 1506hrs on 10th September 2024.
Here is the digital artwork image for the “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider”:
“Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider – Digital” [digital artwork, 9th/10th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, random acrylic red/blue to purple mixed paint on lined notepad, 4646 x 2788 pixels.
Pictured immediately below is the actual physical random paintbrush pressing on the notepad:
“Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider – Original” [original image held in my hand photographed 10th September 1310hrs, pressing 9th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, random acrylic red/blue to purple mixed paint impressioned-pressed onto lined notepad, 4646 x 2788 pixels.
Imagine the plain paper of the as yet “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider” folded on top being pressed into the (Upper or bison) random acrylic mixed paint half of the notepad paper.
This is how the Upper bison half of the brushwork pressed together on the 9th September 2024 came to look as you see here:
“Upper – Original” [photographed held in my hand 11th September 2024 at 1414hrs, paint brushwork and pressing 9th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, random acrylic red/blue to purple mixed paint, pressed in half on lined notepad, 4646 x 2788 pixels.
[differences in notepad paper and paint colours due to indoor lighting conditions and the photographic editing between the two images]
Just take a close look at the beautiful striations in “Upper – Original”. Everything the product of complete random pressing from randomly mixed pseudo-purple paint on the 9th September 2024!
I didn’t even realise the randomness of “Upper” represented any visual form or idea until two days later.
– “How Matt could you not see a bison?! Or North America for that matter?!”
‘I was looking at the <random> paint you see in “Upper” upside down at first. When I turned the paper the other way around what would become “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider – Original” became my initial artistic focus of interest. Primarily since I could quickly see a human-like form in ‘Rider’.
Whereas “Upper” now upside down* as we see it in the image didn’t immediately bring anything to mind visually or in any objective form. Likely since I macro viewed the intricate striations. In fact I was so amazed about the ‘Rider’ for its randomness I even wrote exclusively about this the next day at 1506hrs on the 10th September.Not realising “Upper” would turn out to be as artistically unusual as “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider – Original”!
*upside down at the top as regards the notepad paper. This is why I called it “Upper” at the time since I didn’t have any other specific title idea for this. In fact, I believe I mixed the (Upper) paint ‘upside down’ at the foot of the paper to how you see it above. Entire notepad image shown at the end of this article for reference [see # below]
Quotation from social media in bold and italics:
“If I told you the perceivable landmass you see is 100% completely random paint mixing would you believe me? The beautiful leaf-like striations occurred through my pressing this Upper half against the folded Notepad paper at the centre.
You can see where I held the paper as I made the pressing in both my hands.
After some days I began to envisage this random paintwork looked like North America. On the 12th September or thereabouts I noticed the unusual placement of ‘Florida’. On the 14th September (five days from its random production) I could then see the entire piece looked like a Bison! ‘Florida’ had therefore became its tail, completely by chance.
Extraordinary.” – personally written quotation published on 18th September 2024 to social media.
From “Upper – Original” I made the following digital artworks:
“Red Old Glory Colour North American Bison” [digital artwork, 9th original, 11/12th September 2024 digital] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6000 x 3899 pixels.
I titled this “Red Old Glory Colour North American Bison” today on 24th October 2024.
The red is 179, 25, 66 in the RGB scale.
“White Old Glory Colour North American Bison” [digital artwork, 9th/12th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6000 x 3899 pixels.
I titled this “White Old Glory Colour North American Bison” today on 24th October 2024.
The white is 255, 255, 255 in the RGB scale.
“Blue Old Glory Colour North American Bison” [digital artwork, 9th/12th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6000 x 3899 pixels.
I titled this “Blue Old Glory Colour North American Bison” today on 24th October 2024.
The blue is 10, 49, 97 in the RGB scale.
“Red, White & Blue Old Glory Colours North American Collage with Border” [digital artwork, 9th/12th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6480 x 3396 pixels.
“Red, White & Blue Old Glory Colours North American Collage with Border” is the first collage I made, shown immediately above.
“White Star, Red & White Stripe, Triple Old Glory Colour North American Collage with Border” [digital artwork, 9th/12th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6480 x 3396 pixels.
“White Star, Red & White Stripe, Triple Old Glory Colour North American Collage with Border” is the second collage I made (immediately above) to represent North American emblems of Stars, Stripes red and white with the complimenting Old Glory colours of Red, White and Blue.
Quotation on 16th September 2024 at 2150hrs “.. i would LOVE this artwork as four flags if i could. The three colour flags and then the collage with red and white stripe. if it was my choice i would make it into a cool weathervain [weathervane] piece entitled Four Winds of Direction. i would fasten each flag top and side so each flag would ripple nicely in the wind”.
I honestly felt I needed to dignify the whole random notepad work particularly as North America decided to present itself.
Randomly.
I would like to mention that despite the strange randomness of my work an art commentator did mention Jasper Johns to me afterwards. Jasper Johns famous for his intricate flag artworks.
The art commentator wrote “.. The Jasper Johns directive, ‘take an object, do something to it, do something else to it’. – anonymous, 19th September 2024, 1222hrs.
To this I replied:
“I had researched Jasper Johns work some weeks ago. This is why Upper is so very strange to me, randomly so ‘perfect’. I’m the only person who knows I just focused on mixing red and blue paint. Very odd.” – Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 1322hrs same day.
It should be noted I read, view or think about different visual artists most every day. Including the days and weeks prior to “Upper – Original” and “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider”.
Let’s see some screenshots of newspaper articles whilst thinking of the ‘tail of Florida’in my random brushwork of “Upper – Original”:
‘Map of Tropical Storm Helene’s path’ courtesy of the BBC, 25th September 2024.
As you can see from ‘Map of Tropical Storm Helene’s path’ (immediately above) the ‘tail of Florida’ could be interpreted as a swirling hurricane. There is a striking similarity despite the fact my random brushwork and pressing is done on the 9th September 2024..
.. with pseudo-purple paint whilst working on “UN noise dash dot” [6th to 9th September 2024].
Here is a screenshot report detailing some of the devastating effects of Hurricane Helene:
‘Hurricane Helene tracker, image one’ courtesy of The Telegraph, 27th September 2024 screenshot.
Another highlight from the same report of exponentially destructive manmade climate effects:
‘Hurricane Helene tracker, image two’ courtesy of The Telegraph, 27th September 2024 screenshot.
Anyone appreciating my humanitarian efforts will know I have strongly campaigned for a reversal of manmade climate damages to the Earth, environment, wildlife and global air, land and sea pollution.
I feel my artworks in this article are the subconscious result of humanitarian efforts to appeal to world leaders to better manage Earth’s resources in a more harmonious way.
Thank you.
[#] For reference this is a photograph of the entire brushwork and pressing on the notepad paper as I first viewed same on the 9th September 2024:
Notepad paper with random brushwork and pressing for “Upper” and “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider” from 9th September 2024.
“Golden Sun Bathed in Red” [8th September 2024, dry paint image on the 11th] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 6000 x 4461 pixels.
From social media in bold and italics:
[ I made “Golden Sun Bathed in Red” very quickly in two drafts. The first draft palette work to cover the canvas with a purple I mixed from red/blue acrylic. Then around half an hour to an hour later I produced the entire work within approximately one hour using brushwork primarily.
Palette work can be seen for the sunray fronds. The paints I used additional to the red/blue purple are gold, cadmium red, iridescent copper, orange and green. ]
Do click on the image above, see for yourself the artistry within the painting.
The photography for the original image (shown immediately below) is a specialised style I developed from my sketch “King James VI & I Oak of 1612 Branches in Sunlight”. Whereas the latter is direct lamp light, for “Golden Sun Bathed in Red” I photographed with indirect lamp light.
“Golden Sun Bathed in Red – wet canvas in indirect light” [8th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 5724 x 4189 pixels.
The point I’m making with my artworks is light makes a difference to the presentation. Often I think how I wish an individual artwork to be displayed in terms of lighting.
For instance I have a specific installation idea for “Gold & Blue Abstract After Rothko” (click link to see artwork). I see “Gold & Blue Abstract After Rothko” in an enclosed booth. Each viewer walks in through the low ceiling doorway entrance, likely bowing as they do so. They reach the painting, sitting down at personable distance to the moonlit-like artwork.
Sat meditating. To contemplate their life and life. To refind peace.
By the way, I saved someone work for much later with “Gold & Blue Abstract After Rothko” to help with any potential restoration work centuries yond.
Here it is as a reference for a dear old lady of the future:
“Ecce Pueri” [4th April 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital image hand drawn on screen over original abstract, 1089 x 1641 pixels.
If Monet can begin with caricatures (please refer to the link here Claude Monet’s Caricatures) to influence modern French cartoons, then it is good in my eyes. Besides, I have an immense humour.
[ Claude Monet Caricatures website link courtesy of Draw Paint Academy ]
Breadcrumbs in tarragon crusted sea bass anyone?
Yesterday evening I was walking around theatrically to myself, waving my hands aloft in the air dramatically exclaiming ‘I see the hands of Calibos!‘.. continuing with ‘oh what eyes you have Grandma‘.. then finishing on chatter about wolves in sheeps clothing of fabled fame.
Fun, fun, fun the intellects of centuries past.
I went on to thinking about “The Allegory of Good and Bad Government“ (please click link to view). Artists of the 1300s understanding the contrary elements of good or nefarious intent.
Essentially “Golden Sun Bathed in Red” is specifically a mix of Van Gogh and Munch for style. Their work is loved for a reason..
.. quality and care.
The search for most every professional artist.
With this in mind I shall share with you a quote courtesy of Daily Rothko:
“…nobody has any conception of how poor we all were then. I remember maybe as late as 1955, you know, after the so-called triumph of Abstract Expressionism Rothko saying to me, ‘If somebody would pay me $500 a month for all my past work, which constituted hundreds of pictures, plus everything I’ll make in the future, I would gladly accept it in order to survive.’ I remember looking him in silence because we knew – and this is in 1955 – that nobody in the world would pay him $6,000 a year for his total output; and he was married with a child in the most expensive city in the world.” – Robert Motherwell
(Interview by Paul Cummings at the Artist’s home in Greenwich, Connecticut November 24, 1971, Smithsonian Archives of American Art).
Appreciating and dignifying the monetary value for his work Rothko was in effect asking for $5,882.48 a month if we adjust $500 in 1955 for inflation.
Today, completely unconnected to adjusted inflation Rothko’s rather modest 1955 commentary-offer easily proved worthwhile with his abstract paintings selling for millions of dollars.. each.
“Gold Framed Leaf with Red” [20th/21st August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 7128 x 5305 pixels.
Quotation from my social media on 22nd August:
“this painting was so difficult! .. i added the leaf to make it beautiful. the gold frame inner was added just before that. last i changed the red tones some more.
then added the silver and chrome frames lines to maximise the optical power. the leaf fell into my garden days ago. i didn’t know what it was seeing it a way off on the grass, curled over.
i realised it was just a leaf in the corner. i varnished it a couple of days ago. it made me think of plastics pollution.” – 20th August at 2213hrs.
After this quotation the following day I decided to overpaint the faded whitish varnished gold to strongly reinvigorate its radiant tones. There is much palette knife work for canvas coverage and most of the rectangles. The red rectangle is all brushwork.
After the difficulties of this painting, then pure joy.
This image is a reasonable likeness of the artwork after two days of drying.
Gold, chrome-like silver and bronze can vary according to the light source whilst photographing. The image above displays some light and some shadow to give you an idea of how those three colours could appear on this canvas.
Whilst everything is complimentary I feel two qualities bring this artwork to life. Firstly, the paintwork in the red rectangle. I need to replicate this style in new pieces. Heart emoji eyes.
Secondly the organic leaf itself. Here we are framing an important part of the recyclable living world. I say we since fans share my experience of loving our planet through this artwork, and your own too of course.
Here is the leaf (edited photograph) the day it was found:
“Leaf found in the corner of my Garden” [found & photographed on 18th August 2024, with editing and neutral background 4th September 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 5415 x 6368 pixels.
The leaf changed with the varnishing overnight. I allowed some curling to remain in the final artwork, rather than straightening out the leaf flat to the canvas entirely. It has a hardened, edgy feel quality with the dried varnish. Nicely sensory to the touch. I enjoyed running my finger over the leaf in the artwork, although I have placed the piece into a deep wooden box frame, at least for now.
Plastic pollution saddens us all. It’s something I have journalistically campaigned much regarding.
It’s just one detrimental area of our commercial world, a collective world society I have and am campaigning to help improve, reverse and somehow mitigate.
Let’s make real-world differences we can all be immensely proud to achieve.
“Swirling Winds” [12th August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 6000 x 4482 pixels.
Afterwards viewing “Swirling Winds” I realised this had similarities with my clever photographic series of works you can see in my blog article Oak Branch Astronomy. For this very reason I named the artwork Swirling Winds.
“Swirling Winds” itself an acrylic is made from a blank canvas in precisely nineteen minutes ten seconds (19m10.57s).
The canvas is sixteen inches across, therefore this is very quick instinctive art working for an impasto. Please do click on the image for yourself to see the level of detail, complexity and artistic intellect required to make this piece.
Some artworks wow audiences due to their immediate eye-catching beauty. This is one of them.
To produce a strong work within twenty minutes made me very happy. Even more so considering thisinterconnected with an earlier artworking idea.
Those knowing my genuine interest in manmade climate damage problems can appreciate Swirling Winds communicates layers of idea.
“Unification of Colour #2” [21st August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 7002 x 5196 pixels.
“Unification of Colour #2” builds upon my Unification series of artworks. The #1 version you can see here in another blog article which includes Unification of Colour #1.
Produced quickly, intuitively and with careful artistic skill in less than half an hour approximately.
I feel my Unification series art very much humanitarian works without political commentary.
I love the harmony of colours.
“Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold” [26th August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 6816 x 5118 pixels.
nb The image for “Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold” shown immediately above is with minimal editing including natural light upon the canvas. It is a fair likeness, however the silver is represented differently due to the outdoor light.
I made “Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold” in nineteen minutes and one second. This included a quick pseudo-second draft of one minute ten seconds to palette two present paint-on-canvas applications, one of white, one of silver. I noticed these two paint areas needed paletting after originally stopping the timer at 17m51s.
The following day I could see a central face with eyes, mouth and nose whilst in the evaluation process. Due to this I decided to retain the artwork as we see here, modestly perfect as can be. Pure palette work.
I then changed the working title from ‘Definition #1’ to “Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold”. I try to create the most memorable artwork titles to describe the visual representation.
Nineteen minutes, one second :]
The digital artwork I produced is nice too, immediately below:
“Chance Face with Blue Red Umber – Solarscape” [digital artwork, 26th August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, 6816 x 5118 pixels.
Whilst writing this article I decided “Chance Face with Blue Red Umber” would have a new title, even though this is derived from “Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold”.
A Solarscape is a computer-generated effect from an original utilising my expertise in fine-tuning the tones, balance, light etc. Therefore we can view this process like photographic editing using a high-quality filter altering my work to produce a contrasting digital version.
For me with AI or computer-aided technology, and this is an opinion, an artist should be involved in the conceptualisation process in some way. Without “Chance Face with Yellow Silver Gold” there is no “Chance Face with Blue Red Umber”.
Conceptualisation is an artistic effort. It’s as simple as that.
Without the ‘Spin Paintings’ by Damien Hirst in 1992 we wouldn’t arrive at a collectors’ interactive AI generated ‘The Beautiful Paintings’ in 2023. Of this creative continuation through Hirst’s career we have a quotation from the internet which reads:
“In 1975, he became transfixed by an episode of the children’s television show Blue Peter, featuring the television host John Noakes creating colorful paintings from a motorized cardboard spinning machine.”
Everytime an artist produces a style there is a driving force behind the intellectual derivation.
For instance, let’s say “Unification of Colour #1” and “Unification of Colour #2” displays a possible rule. One is primarily diagonally produced, whereas the other artwork shows palette verticals and horizontals..
“Red Scratchpad” [23rd/24th April 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic fine art painting on 280gsm 10in x 12in gesso primed canvas, 3000 x 3483 pixels.
Quotation from pre-published social media in brackets:
[ “Red Scratchpad” is made with quick palette knife scratches with its own unique pattern.
This artwork exhibits a deep red through mixing cadmium red with gold acrylic paints. I purposely chose to make a scratched ‘beauty highlight’ lower-centre. Another softer scratched highlight is featured mid-left of the ‘M’ at the top of the artwork.
I visually referenced “Green Scratchpad” to begin this second painting of the series. Particularly whilst I am defining visual elements for these pieces.
With the remaining deep red paint I made another quite phenomenal abstract immediately afterwards in the “Pseudo-Purple with Gold Frame” style. ]
You can see “Gold Rectangular Frame with Red” (the second cadmium red with gold acrylic painting I produced on the same days as “Red Scratchpad”) by clicking the link.
It should be noted both “Red Scratchpad” and “Gold Rectangular Frame with Red” were published to my Instagram social media. The latter required new photography prior to publishing to my blog, doing so in June.
In discussing “Red Scratchpad” I can tell you my scratchpad series of works are amongst my favourite. Themes involve movies, creativity, music, thoughts, architecture, self-reflection, abstract ideas. I much prefer viewers to make these series of works their own in terms of meaning.
I have genuinely gifted “Green Scratchpad” although the recipient has yet to receive the artwork as I’m an unbelievably complex person. Some weeks ago I viewed the canvas out from storage.
It’s as astoundingly beautiful as “Red Scratchpad”.
Understated. Classical. First of the Scratchpad series.
There is a great deal of soul-searching to be found within this series, something for me to build upon over the years.
Next we have “Cosmic Scrages” immediately below:
“Cosmic Scrages” [23rd/24th June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 6000 x 4497 pixels.
“Cosmic Scrages” is easily the most Jackson Pollock of works I’ve made to-date. Please do click the images for a more detailed viewing digitally.
Quotation from pre-published social media in brackets:
[ The first draft for “Cosmic Scrages” took 55 minutes on the 23rd June. I then worked over another four drafts the next day until I was happy with the result.
Happy equalled me uncontrollably laughing sometime with literal artistic elation. Afterwards I sat in the garden admiring the painting, drinking a cup of tea.
All palette knife and cloth working, no brushes. Immensely difficult to make, goodness gracious. ]
Well, there you have it in a quotation. No way these images even on high-quality flatscreens can possibly convey the paintworking in “Cosmic Scrages”.
I get an immediate sense of joy when I finish a work. The fact I made a successful inspiration from the works of an influential past master American artist meant everything to me.
I guess it did likewise for Basquiat.
Each and every artist painting is different. Not merely through obvious uniqueness from one work to another.
I could do a geometric painting stylelike “Cosmic Scrages” over and over again. The ‘ideas, qualities, application of the paints or materials.. makes all the difference.’
Just to demonstrate the level of skill required, Geometric Lines #1 & #2 are (of several-attempts-following) my very own masterpieces from that series, of two.
One-offs, #1 and #2.
True, I do wish to produce new ink pen geometrics in the future. However for now I’m happy to let those shine brightly as part of my catalogue raisonné of works. Especially since they’re genuinely difficult to make.
Oh gosh, I love them so. I think you can appreciate why it’s soul-wrenching for me to actually send “Green Scratchpad”.. yet.
To me at the very least“Cosmic Scrages” is my geometric painting masterpiece in the Pollock style.
Producing inspiration from very famous artists is an obsession, whilst also creating my own. It would be absurd to write ‘I simply place material to canvas and et voila.. masterpiece’.
Artistic learning is necessary to provide masterful possibilities.
“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Picasso.
“type: the Unfathomable ARTIST [acrylic version #1]” [9th July 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 7000 x 5201 pixels.
For those who have not read my pre-published social media (Instagram) for this piece, here is a quotation in brackets to give you some insight into the artwork:
[ “type: the Unfathomable ARTIST [acrylic version #1]” builds upon a genre within art containing either/and/or immediacy, repetition, overwriting, overpainting, confounding wordology, iconography/symbology and interpersonal communication.
This piece is founded from my past works with the same message (‘type: the Unfathomable ARTIST‘) portraying multiple ideas and themes. To date I have made oils, iron gall ink and (now) acrylic works with this title.
In effect this is an invitation for you to get to know me, my person, my personality.
Please note confounding wordology is a repetitive practice amongst Twombly and Basquiat works, where I drew inspiration. Particularly in terms of technique, ideas and motivations I am immensely studious with regards to artists, art and generally everything interesting to me. ]
Now for new information to blog readers about this acrylic shown immediately above..
.. it was a total canvas wrestling match to be honest. Some paintings like Yellow Flowered Sun Abstract just happen. Others like this piece <partway through> you would find me carefully considering the visuals, or a lack of artistic quality or the feeling it’s a work-in-progress I’m not ready to place palette, brush or pencils down with.
I must be delighted with an artwork, professionally.
“type: the Unfathomable ARTIST [acrylic version #1]” is somewhat unique. Understated tones, stylistic paint writing in canvas scratches, a messily-attractive disconcordance.
The idea originates specifically from these digital works; oil paintings; and iron gall ink piece I have linked for you to view (please note clicking on these links you may need to use the back button to return to this article):
[type: The Unfathomable… Artist – Electronic Version]
These works have sentimental meaning to me, even beyond themes.
I personally believe “type: The Unfathomable… Artist – Electronic Version” [18th August 2020] is one of my most valuable artworks. Similar feeling also with “Green Scratchpad” and “Cosmic Scrages” [23rd/24th June 2024].
Friendship is a powerful emotion.
Finally, I would like to share a blog article of an inspired artwork subconsciously featuring a particular woman with whom “type:” series of works derive certain elements.
Purely for those wishing to understand cultural changes my art and humanitarian efforts need to achieve.
“Soul Window – Lagoon Nebula” [19th/20th June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) 115gsm medium texture cotton wood-fibre board (4mm) primed to 240gsm, 6000 x 4488 pixels.
As you can see from the title everything in this article will be rectangular artwork based. For regular blog Readers just to let you know I’m posting like–sets of works together due to my busy painting output of the past few months.
Excluding pieces in this article I now have eleven painting works to publish to my blog. Even as I write I have a new (to me) abstract artworking (style) in mind to make. I would say my artworking happens in phases. Phases can be inspirationally motivated, of styles, of mood.
Abstracts are primarily my present ‘phase’.
“Soul Window – Lagoon Nebula” is interesting in that this acrylic painting is derived from a digital artwork and not the other way around.
You can take a quick peek at the digital inspiration by clicking here:
Quotation from pre-published social media in brackets:
[ I made the acrylic painting completely in 1 hour 4 minutes and 8.07 seconds including the prior freehand sketching for the rectangular placements in pencil. These placements were all made without measuring equipment purely by sight.
Entirely palette knifework from tube placed paint. No masking of areas on the canvas purely for speed art working.
Whilst the artwork was drying I noted very minute details I wished to change. To the left I noticed some pinkish paint in the yellow-ochre rectangle which was quickly overpainted within a few minutes on the 19th.
The following day I removed cerulean paint marks at the 4mm canvas outer edges with ivory-black paint. To the lower-left canvas edge, very slight ivory-black additions to finely balance the visible canvas lines you see in the ivory-black outer rectangle.
The two additional separate drafts literally took me minutes each.
This piece is my first physical acrylic painting version of my earlier “Soul Window – Lagoon Nebula” digital Pop Art made on 1st September 2023 using professional digital painting software. One of my very best digital artworks in my opinion.
This painting is best viewed at gallery viewing distance to fully enjoy the artistic experience. ]
Future acrylic ‘Soul Windows’ could include non-rectangular designs. For now I’m happy to continue experimenting with the time-honoured tradition of mathematically pleasing rectangles.
“Fiery Mustard-Blue Rectangular Frame” [2nd July 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 4474 x 3330 pixels.
“Fiery Mustard-Blue Rectangular Frame” is one of the most yummiest, diverse paintings I’ve ever made.
It [ took just under one hour six minutes to finish in one draft. It’s an inspiration from a photographic skyscape with ‘Van Gogh-like’ motions over the canvas.
The unusual colour palette makes for a different viewing experience.
Van Gogh, Rothko, Pollock, Warhol and Basquiat all had moments in their career where they chose to make works, perhaps, at odds with some pieces becoming immediate commercial successes. Yet, “the artist realises something in their work to appear alive, sentient.”
For me “Fiery Mustard-Blue Rectangular Frame” represents the undervalued beauty of the Earth through the magnifying glass of the sky.” ] – quotation in brackets from my pre-published social media.
I just re-read “represents the undervalued beauty of the Earth through the magnifying glass of the sky“.
It’s a fair commentary for this acrylic in my opinion. It does look like a VVG garden painting.
VVG = Vincent Van Gogh.
“Red-Green Rectangular Frame” [6th August 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on premium 115gsm medium textured cotton primed to 240gsm over 12in x 16in (30cm x 40cm) wood-fibre board (4mm), 6960 x 5196 pixels.
“Red-Green Rectangular Frame” took 35m29.43s to make. I love it. Here is a crop of the timer screenshot:
I have kept most every timer photograph catalogued with my speedworked pieces.
Quite challenging to make this one. I did geometric palette tool lines prior to the rectangles (seen underneath in the background). The top and lower green rectangle lines were perfection as soon as I placed them. Slivers of bright beautiful green.
Having purchased cadmium red I was delighted with the strong, overpowering tone. I buy quality paints. Yes it can be expensive, especially making impastos where I use heavy paint applications. To give you an idea, I bought paints in June 2024 and August 2024 to replenish regularly utilised colours.
I do try different product makers to vary my professional output and variety with colour.
I feel “Red-Green Rectangular Frame” has Soul Window qualities to the innermost rectangle. The two yellowy-gold verticals of the inner red rectangle look super on the canvas.
Personally I know how I would frame these pieces to hang on the wall.
“humane slaughter – Original” [6th June 2024], by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint & iron gall ink with dip pen on four individual A4 250g mixed media papers, 5848 x 4505 pixels.
I made “humane slaughter – Original” on four individual A4 papers pretty much in one day. This was very intricate, precise work. I felt it important to envisage a writing font to suit the subject material..
.. livestock humanity.
The care and keep of live domesticated animals in the farming environment.
An online model posted a harrowing scene showing the separation of cow to her calves at the behest of farmers. It was the way this was done which questioned humanity.
The calves were loaded on to a truck and they drove away directly in front of the cow. Appearing to take delight in the process.
I needed to articulate this into an artwork. Doing so with layers of ‘human humanity‘ entwined into the works you see here.
Questions interlinking livestock treatment to humanitarian issues we see commonly in wars around the world. Humanity seems to go out the window as evil driving storms.
With an opportunity to create something in Warhol style I produced this digital 16 grid piece you see here:
“humane slaughter – sixteen grid Collage” [6th June / digital 10th June 2024], digital artwork from four paintings by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint & iron gall ink with dip pen on four individual A4 250g mixed media papers arranged into a sixteen-grid digital Collage, 6000 x 4627 pixels.
“humane slaughter – sixteen grid Collage” highlights the awful conditions some livestock (sentient creatures) are kept.
Quotation:
[ My four original “humane slaughter” paintings are made to interconnect animal livestock commercial ethics/practices with humanitarian sensibilities, especially as regards wars/refugee displacement.
The thought I am making is ‘Are humans and livestock animals being treated fairly according to the relevant Laws in terms of life and sentience?”. ]
As we read, we all know the answer.
“unMatched” [6th/7th June & 17th July 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, magazine derived collage cutouts with acrylic paint on gesso primed whole international magazine [painted over cover], circa A4 size, 4503 x 5842 pixels.
“unMatched” features layers of ideas whilst creating the artwork early June 2024. Conservation and manmade habitat destruction are the primary themes.
Interestingly, reading the news on the 17th July, the Mashco Piro indigenous tribe inspired my use of green paint.
The use of green paint is further referenced in my earlier poetry and poetry reading performance work “Father of Sci-Fi”. You can see and listen to my reel on Instagram for this here:
[Please note the letter M in “unMatched” is written in the colour GREEN. This may or may not be noted on your social media platform’s visual text]
“unMatched” includes multiple themes – modern popular culture references, symbology, personal iconography with a rough collage style to provide spontaneity.
As you can see by the title dates, this collage piece took some time before finalising. The green paint added last on the 17th July to make the artwork stand out. In terms of “Father of Sci-Fi” there is significant ‘symbiosis‘ occurring between these works.
You could even say the choice of works in this blog article is art itself.
Quotation:
“i wanted to share this work with you “unMatched”. when i made this spontaneously i only realised afterwards the diverse intellectual output.
i am definitely asking in the tribal sense ‘who is greater in intellect, the forest dwelling tribe living in harmony with the land or the modern destructive capitalist culture?’.
i would like to say i’m not against capitalism. as a humanitarian i am for equality, harmony and respect of resources ♏️” – personal words sent on 26th July 2024, 2024hrs.
“Unification of Colour #1” [23rd May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic on A4 250g mixed media paper, 5000 x 3672 pixels.
The artistically placed palette colours onto A4 paper for “Unification of Colour #1” took me approximately twenty minutes.
With the beauty of its construction this reminds me of my earlier works Geometric Lines #1 & #2. Whereas acrylic paint in “Unification of Colour #1” forms the structure instead of ink and pencil in Geometric Lines #1 & #2.
The title for this work derives from the unification of peoples rather than describing political terminology. A unification transcending individual national colours.
Please note the choice of colours is not political, national or with any exact meaning. It merely represents the palette colours I had available at the time of my art working.
“Unification of Colour #1 -SolarScape” [100% digital artwork, 26th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic on A4 250g mixed media paper, 5000 x 3672 pixels.
I encourage you to click on each image for closer detail. “Unification of Colour #1 -SolarScape” is a digital artwork derived from the original. I balanced the tones, contrast and brightness digitally for this artwork.
Whilst some digital artworks I make are purely experimental, I do feel digital artworks like these are limited edition giclees, lithographs and silkscreens for the future.
Both these works are as perfect as my artmaking gets, to me.
“cetacea” [20th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic and charcoal on A4 250g mixed media paper, 3890 x 5487 pixels.
I photographed prewritten A4 paper at 2135hrs consisting entirely of charcoal pencil from an earlier working idea.
By 2312hrs on the 20th I had photographed the completed “cetacea” work with acrylic paint. I write this to give you an idea of just how fast I am working sometimes.
Here is the premarked paper:
“cetacea – charcoal work in progress” [2135hrs, 20th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, charcoal on A4 250g mixed media paper, 5121 x 7164 pixels.
Super glad I had the thought to photograph this A4 premarked paper prior to painting, see immediately above.
10101, 10101, 01010 is an ISBN style theme from earlier works in Pop Art Egyptian Rabbit with ISBN & Barcode. Albeit a different numbering code, visibly obscured in the painting.
“cetacea” asks questions with regards to the origination of life, entwined in the idea of secrecy and spiritual liberation.
“Gold Rectangular Frame with Red” [23rd/24th April 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on A4 250g mixed media paper, 7894 x 5663 pixels.
“Gold Rectangular Frame with Red” (shown immediately above) is made in the same one-draft-only session with “Red Scratchpad” using a gold and cadmium red 50/50 acrylic paint mix.
The first photographs for both paintings [Gold Rectangular Frame with Red and Red Scratchpad] were taken at 0023hrs upon completion on 24th April including photographs of the two acrylic paint tubes used, for documenting purposes.
Quote ‘With the remaining deep red paint I made another quite phenomenal abstract immediately afterwards in the style of “Pseudo-Purple with Gold Frame” [29th March 2024]’.
I decided on the paint mix for “Red Scratchpad” and continued with this colour scheme for “Gold Rectangular Frame with Red”. The latter has two digital Versions entitled “Pseudo-Gold Monochrome Frame” and “Pseudo-Gold Magenta Frame with Purple”, see immediately below for both these:
“Pseudo-Gold Monochrome Frame” [3rd June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital artwork, 7894 x 5663 pixels.
Then the Purple version here:
“Pseudo-Gold Monochrome Frame” [3rd June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, digital artwork, 7894 x 5663 pixels.
“I kind of like this one, Bob, leave it” – screenplay quote from Batman (1989).
Why reference a popular violent movie?
I don’t know. Heat? Global warming? Manmade climate damage. Art is interpreted the way you perceive it. I didn’t have any specific theme behind “Gold Rectangular Frame with Red”. It does have an urgency within the artwork though.
I feel if we combine the red to be heat, the monochrome to be fossil fuels and the purple to be a psychopathic onslaught against planet Earth.. an intellectual theme is created as I write!
In keeping with themes here is my next work to share with you:
“Mapped Random Satellite {Day} #1” [1st June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist on 80gsm lined Notepad paper, 6480 x 6480 pixels with border for social media.
Clearly this is Abstract.
“Mapped Random Satellite {Day} #1” is literally a doodle produced by drawing pencil lines around random premarked acrylic paint likely made during my earlier work “Black Rectangle with Blue”. The latter included both silver and black acrylic.
As an electronic gaming enthusiast since my childhood I had just completed a virtual flight using a modern computing simulation of avionics.
Having a pencil at the ready following notation after my gaming I made a quick doodle around the premarked acrylic in the Notepad I was using! No preplanned idea whatsoever.
The title is derived by how I perceived the artwork, afterwards.
Quote – ‘What do you think of looking at this?’ [Asking with no information given regarding the artwork besides drawing around premarked paint]
– “It looks like tools“.
Maps are an integral part of aviation. The artwork is 100% pure chance.
nb I made a second Version as a digital artwork for this entitled “Mapped Random Satellite {Night} #1” here:
“Mapped Random Satellite {Night} #1” [3rd June 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist on 80gsm lined Notepad paper, 5000 x 6946 pixels without border for social media.
I felt “Mapped Random Satellite {Night} #1” had artistic value in context of beauty and symbology.
Incredibly by 100% pure chance the original has two adjacent runways with a ‘person’ sat on a seat as if viewing a computer, perhaps even directing aircraft either for ATC or military purposes?
You’re the viewer, you decide.
For me as an artist the original is one of the most ridiculous artworks I have ever made by chance.
As a bonus to blog Readers I thought I would include a previously unpublished acrylic work:
“10110101” [20th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on A4 250g mixed media paper, 4262 x 6234 pixels.
I hadn’t published this artwork up until now for no particular reason. It certainly has no gender specific or unspecific connotation.
Those knowing my youth will appreciate I was/am immensely technically interested in computers. Including the ability in my teens to write programs in computer languages to some extent. With (non-machine) code I could understand somewhat its intended purpose.
In my childhood family life and/or directly owned by me personally I had direct access to the ZX81, Atari, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 16, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, Playstations 1 & 2 then three desktop PCs (as early as Windows 95) and two laptops.
Binary numbers always represent computing to me.
In this sense “10110101” is created as a cuneiform tablet as a pseudo-set of language rules.
The origination of written language academically, historically, culturally and genetically as a human race.
“The Fathomable Scream” [16th/18th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on A4 250g mixed media paper, 4000 x 3000 pixels, with fabric background as photographed.
This piece is inadvertently inspired by Edvard Munch entitled “The Fathomable Scream” and made of approximately three drafts on two separate days with around three hours working. Beginning the work on lightly prepainted paper.
Here is the slightly premarked paper immediately below (11th May) to give you an idea of how the artworking area looked before I began:
The Fathomable Scream random premarked paint on paper 11th May 2024.
Minimal.
You can see entirely random palette marks made, immediately above, whilst working on another paper canvas. The premarked paper is unintended scrapes of my palette knife whilst I worked on “Cavernous Red Blue Abyss”.
Here is the first intended draft:
“GG” first draft, 0110hrs 16th May 2024, 45 minutes 03 seconds with iron gall ink writing in the underpainting.
In the first draft entitled “GG” we see the words ‘disguise’ and ‘covert’ in iron gall ink. The GG stood for good game, inspiration from an online Youtube video. I had no thought whatsoever to make the ‘GG’ into eyes, face and mouth as yet. Nor any idea regarding a Munch scream inspiration until the lower-right face formed.
Of the two faces to the right.. the lower-right face was first. Completely random in any likeness. HONESTLY. The paint was placed directly onto the paper. I used the palette to make face shapes. The mouth reminded me of a popular Oscar winning animation. However its sense of sadness, horror or anxiety appealed to me within the ideas of a developing artwork theme.
If you had observed how very randomly I moved the paint for the lower-right face over and over you would appreciate how odd it was to me when the chance likeness of someone famous appeared. Again.
From this I then thought of tragedies and musicians.. like Kurt Cobain, hence the blonde hair idea. Afterwards (days afterwards) I realised this artistic idea had another direct significance to ‘the likeness’ face!
By this time the top-right face could represent John Lennon, or anyone the viewer chose in the context of tragedy.
——-
It is good to note for the second draft I watched television at the time of painting the evening of 18th May. Usually I art work in quiet as I’m a very focused person. Although if I write songs I am often listening to music.
A particular sports commentary to know their general opinions.
The hair for the large left face is pure chance in that I never intended to actually paint hair! I thought of Andy Warhol by the time I made divers goggles around the eyes. It was also here I loved the way the unintended hair looked. I literally wanted a nice background as I paletted gold paint onto the canvas.
“The Fathomable Scream” [16th/18th May 2024] became an immediately recognisable, creative and unique Unfathomable Artist work.
Here it is to show the painting only:
“The Fathomable Scream” [16th/18th May 2024] by Matt The Unfathomable Artist, acrylic paint on A4 250g mixed media paper, 4000 x 3000 pixels.
The Unfathomable Artist 