Matt The Unfathomable Artist fans please be ready for draft by draft overload.
Having wrote detailed information I thought ‘Fans do need to see these drafts to appreciate how UN noise dash dot progressed’.
“UN noise dash dot” is made in approximately four drafts as follows.
6th September prior to 2111hrs:
First draft: beautiful red canvas coverage and canvas scratches (palette knife) including scratched words. I cannot explain how invigorating this first draft was.
Photograph immediately below.
It’s cool fans get to see early drafts, my artmaking process and developing ideas.
Late 6th into early hours of 7th September prior to 0011hrs:
Second draft:
- charcoal lines added
- charcoaled SCREEN_. [to read, ‘dash dot’] PLAY, 314, ART LIFE, tree, UN, stylised sigma symbol [ Σ ] left of ART LIFE, M and box shapes
- ‘claw’ added to the top of a rectangular robot-like or building shape
- soft pastels around some boxes for definition
The ‘claw’ could possibly be subconsciously inspired by “The Giant Claw” [movie, 1957] and/or Robby the Robot from “Forbidden Planet” [movie, 1956]. The latter is one of my all-time favourite films. I did enjoy “The Giant Claw” recently, due to the acting performances by the cast.
un in capitals means ‘the opposite of’ or ‘contrary to’ although I’m happy with any reasonable interpretation for this lettering.
I did also think of the un in unfathomable whilst writing this and also the United Nations. I didn’t and haven’t defined an exact meaning for ‘un’. I enjoy viewers deciding for themselves, personally.
Photograph immediately below.
7th September prior to 1445hrs:
Third draft:
- yellow paint added around boxes,
- yellow highlights around some words,
- pseudo-purple paint (first batch) around boxes,
- green paint around 314, ART LIFE, UN,
- letter [ i ] symbolically added in green to the right of the letter M.
see [*1] further below for details of the first batch of pseudo-purple paint I mixed on sandpaper that randomly became “Sandpapered Green with Dark Purple & Yellow”.
You can see the wet purple and yellow on the UN noise dash dot canvas (image immediately below) that featured in ‘Sandpapered Green..”:
8th September 2024 – artwork drying, photographed once for artistic evaluation:
- no drafts, I photographed “UN noise dash dot” now dry from the day before and the still drying heavy impasto canvas of “Cosmic Mouth” – the ‘astronomy‘ art work (not the female mouth canvas working as this was extensively done on the 1st & 2nd September 2024, subsequently overpainted).
9th September early afternoon prior to 1334hrs:
Fourth draft:
- green highlights around boxes and dash dot symbols added in green to balance the canvas visuals.
- heavier overpaint to the existing UN green box for definition.
- second batch of mixed red/blue-to-pseudo-purple paint added around smaller boxes and underneath the overpainted green dash dots below ‘UN‘. I called this latter area ‘the seated dash dots‘ as some days afterwards this is how I myself interpreted this. Please do see “Mapped Random Satellite {Day} #1” as I believe this is my subconscious finding its way into UN noise dash dot. Interestingly the seated shape of these dash dots is pure chance to fill negative canvas space!
see [*2] further below for details of the second batch of pseudo-purple paint I mixed on Notepad paper to randomly become “Upper – Original” with “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider in Six-Grid Collage”.
Photograph immediately below, wet paint online version.
In terms of subject matter I feel “UN noise dash dot” is my usual pop art complexity. Not in any order of importance or competing artistic thought:
- movies, classical films (produced by studios like RKO Pictures)
- a popular children’s book and renowned writer (then I thought of “The Curious Face in the Pond”)
- computer gaming culture
- espionage, ‘job’/’work’
- national world powers
- relationships, romantic love
- floral arrangements, beautifying things
- geo-political tensions, military escalations
- diplomacy
- personally themed symbology, iconography
- urban space, city buildings competing with greenspace
- contentious popular social media (the word SOCIAL features vertically)
- conservation (tree is a direct reference to “Wooden Walkway with Birds Feet” and “Orchard Tree in Hay Meadow” where planted orchard trees were added to the nature reserve in 2023)
- spurious Morse Code without any meaning in ‘dash dot’
- my digital artworks with bright neon-like highlights as a purely visual reference to the neon-like acrylic highlights within “UN noise dash dot” please see:
What did you feel “UN noise dash dot” is about?
Here is further information whilst making “UN noise dash dot” with regards to the two pseudo-purple paint batches I mixed on the 7th and 9th September respectively:
[*1] 7th September prior to 1445hrs:
- Whilst mixing the first batch of red/blue paint for the purple I made a (then unknown to me) random artwork on sandpaper that would become “Sandpapered Green with Dark Purple & Yellow”.
- I folded one P400 sandpaper piece in the middle from the leftover purple paint to make two paint prints on the same P400 paper piece. I then pressed one of these to a third sandpaper rectangle (folded P400 piece), now making three individual rectangular acrylic ‘prints’ across two pieces of P400 sandpaper.
[*2} 9th September early afternoon prior to 1334hrs.
- Whilst mixing a second batch of red/blue paint for the purple I made a (then unknown to me) random artwork on lined Notepad paper. This would become first two acrylic pieces then their digital artwork derivations through “Upper – Original” and “Unfathomable Apocalypse Rider – Original” (both physical pieces and the digital derivations are included in the same blog article and link).
Just a quick thought on ‘then unknown to me‘. To me as an artist, mixed or mixing paint is made purely for the purpose of the canvas I’m working on, nothing more. When working on oils I have art-deco teacup saucers I use to mix the paint. These are cleaned after each oil painting session.
Making art from mixed acrylic paint leftovers is therefore quite new to me. Every now and then I like the look of the random paint I’ve mixed, please see “Pure Chance Portrait #2 in Portrait” for instance. Interestingly, I have some iron gall ink practice works I turned into art pieces some years ago. I’ve not published or formally documented any of those as yet.
“UN noise dash dot” is unusual in that I had two batches of mixed acrylic paint workings I liked and decided to do something with.
Hope you have enjoyed this article.
The Unfathomable Artist 