Help

I have been asked to write a painter's forward for a new catalogue of my project Jojo: Two. I find it’s always difficult to write about your artwork and working method objectively. So I have hit upon the bright idea of asking if other painter's feel the same way. Any comments or criticism would be welcomed.

Painter’s Forward

In March 2008, Jojo appointed me as Artist-in-Residence (although I prefer the term Painter, which will become apparent later) on his new play The Man in the Red Scarf. As a perfectionist, Jojo believed my inclusion in his production team would enhance the actors’ experience and understanding of the symbiosis relationship between the painter and his model. It was also an opportunity to paint passport-style images of the cast to illustrate the souvenir programme.

My foremost interest in Jojo’s play however, was to explore the spatio-temporal effects of the actors’ movements upon the stage; and the subsequent effects these influences have upon localized colour-patches.
My preferred working mode on this project was to sketch and photograph key moments within the play that caught ‘my’ mind’s-eye. Naturally the quantity of visual material collected was overwhelming, a possible hindrance to the painter which necessitates being synthesised. Synthesizing collected visual material eliminates the tactile sensations of ‘common’ (every day) optical perceptions; allowing the visual familiarity of inherited (taught) or ‘lived’ (personal experiences) perceptions to be discarded.

An active painter’s mind synthesise visual material and removes all notions and fears of a blank canvas. The painter’s mind and third eye, helps achieve this state of awareness by providing a diagram.

The diagram is the unknown; the hidden process and untold mystery that creates the sub-structure or aperture of an artwork and is usually hidden from the spectator and final work. The diagram is the imaginary lines, marks and colour-patches, happy accidents which are ‘opportunities of facts’ the figurative painter aspires to exploit. This painter’s search is not for pictorial facts or truths; this after all is the realm of the artist – whose artistic representations attempt to mimic the world.

My Compositional Colour Beginning worksheets are in a way my diagram, allowing me to process my thoughts in an analytical figurative form. I find worksheets accessible, provide opens for my mind; in contrast, sketch books always appear to me restrictive.

The catalogue is designed to provide the spectator with a facsimile of my worksheets with all their hidden notations made for my private reference. There are ten coloured worksheets and the eleventh drawing is composed using elements from each of the coloured worksheets. The drawing clearly illustrates how various elements have been included or discarded. The information within this drawing means the painting will not commence as a blank canvas.

January 2009.