The Self-Isolation Residency 25th April 2020: Day 27

'Cauliflower soup'.

So close and yet so far!

Yes it's nearly finished but there are just a few details that I need to either tighten up or add. Finishing a painting can be the most difficult thing for many artists, knowing exactly when a painting is finished and to leave it alone as opposed to keep tinkering with it indefinitely. Most of the time I don't suffer from this particular problem, I like to think that I am somewhat on the sparing side when it comes to painting and that I can judge just how much a painting needs and what would be too much. If anything I like to understate things.

I have always been able to make this kind of judgement of a painting, but I have wondered if to some extent it is connected to the way that I make sculpture and installation pieces. For me, especially in these kinds of 3D works, I tend to set myself very strict limitations as to what materials I use. I will not use anything 'extra' to the nature of the piece if it can be at all avoided. For me the limited range of materials that I use in a piece of work are very similar to the limited range of colours that I use in a painting; I want for every part of a piece that I create to say something important about the idea behind it, I certainly don't want for the finished piece to be weighed down by excess and unneeded baggage. At this point I am very tempted to insert an image of a  piece of my sculpture to illustrate my point, but I would prefer to save those kinds of things for my series of sculpture posts. So lets use an analogy here instead.

I know a chef who told me about making cauliflower soup. Whilst in the kitchen preparing it he was questioned about how much bacon, garlic and various other ingredients he intended to add as the kitchen juniors felt he hadn't got many ingredients that they themselves would have included in such a soup. He answered that he didn't intend to use any of the ingredients that they suggested. When the soup was ready all in the kitchen tasted it and remarked on how good it was; 'you can really taste the cauliflower' remarked the original junior. 'Exactly' replied my friend.

So yes, please feel free to think of my work as cauliflower soup, I'd take it as a great compliment!