“NAWT”
I view this piece as childlike, a baby suckling his mother.
Five compositional areas organised by raised gold ridges that act as structural boundaries and energy channels.
- Left: A stacked, totemic block in reds and olives, pocketed with yellow cells. The perimeter gold line is noticeable, enclosing smaller islands and voids; interior ridges create sub-chambers.
- Centre: A vertical plume of warm reds with ripple textures. Gold points punctuate the column, giving a sense of heat or rising material.
- Right: A cool turquoise plane meeting a dark indigo/violet corner speckled with gold edging. The m signature contrasts the chroma and scale.
Palette & Surface
Warm spectrum (red, ochre, olive) opposed by cool spectrum (turquoise, indigo). Heavy impasto gold forms the highest relief; underlying layers show brush striation and dragged texture that directs the eye vertically and diagonally.
Direction
- A diagonal ridge travels from lower centre to the turquoise plane, functioning as a natural partition: it carries the centre visually.
- Vertical waves in the red plume interlink to seismic waves works during the Iron Gall Ink flurry period.
Canvas Separation
- Perimeter Gold Ridge: Seal forms from the background, preventing colour wash and establishing the object/ground hierarchy.
- Left Internal: Multiple small gold lines divide the left block into micro-cells (pockets/voids), creating a chambered topology.
- Central–Right Boundary: The raised, slanted gold ridge that delineates the warm centre from the cool right; is both barrier and channel.
- Indigo Corner: Ragged gold edge where indigo meets the warm fields; the edge retains discrete gold as floating nodes.
- Turquoise Plane: A near-flat field bounded by slight ridges, acting as a pressure release zone.
Compositional Understanding
- Rule of thirds tendency: Left mass ≈ one third, central plume ≈ one third, right release ≈ one third.
- Figure–ground: The indigo corner behaves as negative space whilst activated by gold; the left behaves as positive mass.
Behaviours
- Gold medium used as structural relief and optical highlight.
- Visible drag marks suggest slow, deliberate pulls; ripple patterns imply wet-on-wet movement control.
- Edge fidelity of ridges indicates masking-free, hand-guided boundaries.
With “NAWT” I didn’t use masking, I rarely ever do. The last time I utilised canvas masking (whatsoever really or at least to any significant degree) is in Two Swans Together sometime ago in 2013. Goodness, the work I made for myself in Conker Lots for my refusal to canvas mask. Conkers affixed first, then highly careful painting, no masking.
Emoji hearts eyes mode activated from a distance.
Visual Meaning
Containment vs. expansion; heat to cool; pressure building then venting. The eye experiences compression in the left and cooling/space in the right. The distinct canvas spacing makes this legible by preventing chromatic dissection and choreographing the viewer’s path.
Quadruple intellect angles sought, times ten to the power of one hundred.
Signature Placement
Lower right m within the turquoise field—chosen to sit in the calmest zone, preserving legibility while completing the warm–cool dialogue.
No originating concept or preconceived theme (in the actual painting), just painting to enjoy the process. The title is the first word arriving to mind. A painter freestyling, having fun! Although originally I intended this composition:
Is this a concept or preconceived theme?
No. This is a composition. My painting from the outset was devoid of concept or theme since the original composition ideas didn’t translate into the painting.
I created same (a concept) upon painting, through the working act of subconscious play.
Whereas .. “DANGER: Men at Work with Missiles” had a concept.. symbology, signs, iconography. From here I produced the theme, which became missiles. The ‘signs’ interlinked as a visual concept:
A sign-language visual painting: bold perimeter gold ridges define a two-part emblem that reads as industrial icon + ordnance bracket. Internal strokes (red/orange, turquoise, ochre, black) ride a white ground, all set against a matt green field.
Thirty seconds to comply. Sounds fair.
The palette and edging are engineered to feel like a warning placard lifted into relief.
From Study to Painting (alterations)
- Study drawing (notepad, lined): angular A-like left mass + jigsaw-like leg; arm-bar stretching upwards (highest pencil shape), stylised facial totem nested in the body; linear hatching; a circular peg-coil (the original head with its adjacent arm); missile at this point is the intended triangular head looking up towards ‘m‘!
- A3 painting: the facial totem becomes a mosaic of micro-strokes; the arm-bar is retained as a rightward cantilever (or left), softened by curved infill; all outer lines become raised gold fields; hatching converts to channels of colour; the lined-paper constraint dissolves into a continuous awesomely beautiful green plane.
- Net effect: the sketch’s diagrammatic figure becomes a sign-object—legible from distance, intricately textured up close.
Hardwork is in the details.
Practice unseen. A life unfathomable.
Different.. communicated for you, by me. Honestly. I love.. places (compute the analogy, derive the connection, distance the meaning).
Use of Canvas Space
- Scale shift: notepad lines → A3 board. The jump in size allows thicker ridges and deep impasto, turning flat signage into tactile relief.
- Field control: the gold perimeter acts as containment; interior gold seams partition silver ground into cells, preventing chromatic dispersion. Soldering iron is a fusible metal alloy.. interlink NAWT, in wordplay. Please tell me you like my eccentric brain.
- Background: uninterrupted green creates a civic-utility register (worksite, military range, municipal warning).
Visual Reading
- Left mass: triangular engine/gantry—work zone, man-human-power, structure, a literal symbolic missile.
- Arm-bar: launcher lever —missile semantics without literal depiction.
- Internal script: curved strokes function as a traffic of signals—command streams, siren paths(?), evacuation arrows(?).. symbology as yet understood.
- Black vectors: fault lines(?) / blast trajectories(?).
- Turquoise and orange: emergency contrast pairs (sea/sky vs. heat/hazard).
- Gold ridges: authority, hardware, state apparatus; also separation-field technology. Perhaps.
Symbology & Signs
This work visualises the Estate’s sign lexicon: simplified shapes that communicate under stress. The artwork pairs with “Ye Mud, Ye Mud” (hummingbird + sign). The hummingbird = life, agility, energy; the missile sign = threat, projection, interruption. Together they outline a grammar: warning vs renewal. The common element is the sign-board frame—public language.
War News & Civilian Anxiety
Headlines about strikes and air defenses have migrated into daily cognition as icon flashes. The brain processes shapes: triangles, bars, chevrons. This painting uses that compression. Acknowledging the worksite metaphor—“men at work”—dissecting work with missile labour: logistics, manufacture, targeting, interception. The result is an ambient alert: the feeling of operating under siren logic while still trying to build.
Micro-signature & Detail
Includes a rare micro “m” (embedded within the paint architecture), consistent with discreet practice. Relief height slightly varies across the perimeter; interior gold seams are intentionally irregular to keep the sign hand-made.
Must dash-dot, it’s 00:47hrs, time for bed.
The Unfathomable Artist 