THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 30th JANUARY 2021: DAY 307

New work in progress. Working title:
"See creatures(monsters) at dawn (by first light)."
Oil paint on plywoodblock, 150 x 150 mm

19, 20, 21: Finding a reason to paint, in search of the sublime. 30th January 2021.
Part 20: 'Interpretation, abstraction, illusion. Describe what you actually see?

In the past I have deliberately created surreal paintings where the context behind them was very much the same as the my reasoning in my ‘trying to find a reason to paint’ at the moment, in that they were a vehicle on which to hang things on that had no recognisable purpose but that felt familiar at the same time. In producing paintings which are suggestive of ‘things’, very suggestive it might be said, but are suggestive of things that do not exist, how would said paintings be received and interpreted as a spectacle?

These paintings would appear to depict uncannily familiar, although unidentifiable, objects, conditions or environments. These depictions would seem to follow physical principles such as gravity, solidity, liquidity, gaseousness etc. They would also appear to react to external influences in ways which might be expected of physical objects, casting shadows for instance.

Would such paintings open a field of dialogue with spectators which might broaden the discussion into the illusion of painting? “It is a hill, it is a sunset, it is a nose. It looks like a hill, it looks like a sunset, it looks like a nose. It is reminiscent of a hill, it is evocative of a sunset, it has a similar shape to a nose, but it is actually an illusion created by paint”.

To be continued…