​In a recent post, 'Of Dubious Provenance' 1st November 2024, I mentioned 'that I have decided that it's finished by granting it it's title. 
The title...that's for another post, perhaps tomorrow...perhaps not.' And me being me, I didn't return to the subject the next day, but I do intend to today. 

As you may already know, In this series of paintings, the Apophenia Series, it my intention to explore how people, the brain, interprets  purely abstract paintings. My research for this project has lead me to some very interesting reading, which has broadened my thinking on the subject to stimulate my an interest into how the brain generally makes sense of the messages coming from the eyes.

The latest thinking on these optical processes is that we don't really see every detail of exactly what is in front of us. Indeed it now appears likely that the brain creates a substantial part of what we see, based on what it expects to see, and only adds extra details, or corrections based on new information  from the eyes. 

The connection between this idea of vision and how I am now titling my new paintings is to do with this non- specificity of what is observed. I want the titles of my paintings to have meaning, but not subject if that makes sense. All of the new works are titles to say that they are something, but not what that something is.

Once again I'm out of the studio and once again the A/D sketches are showing their value. 'Of No Idea' started life sometime ago as an ink study in a small sketchbook. Next it acquired a life as the third of the the above A/D Sketches. So far, so good. I thought I was ready to paint, but there was a doubt...the space just wasn't quite right. However I knew I was close and that other refinements could, and should, happen on the canvas. 
Drawing out, starts, I have a doubt, Blocking in starts, The doubt grows. I go back at my A/D Sketch and start to play again.  I need to open up the space, and here I have two ways to  experiment, on canvas and digitally. perfect! I back and forth between the two. The A/D influences the oil, The oil influences the A/D, which in turn influences the oil again until I find the space I'm looking for, the first of the images above. 

A  blog is a strange beast...sometimes it calls you daily, sometimes not for weeks. Actually that's a lie, like making art, a blog always calls you daily. You always have something to say, (or at least I do) but often life has more important things to say and those of course take priority. However the art always continues, even if at a slower pace sometimes.
'Of Dubious Provenance', started life as an A/D sketch back in June of this year, from when onwards it rotated it's way on and off my easels with some half-dozen or so other paintings until now. Now that I have decided that it's finished by granting it it's title. 
The title...that's for another post, perhaps tomorrow...perhaps not.