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January 13, 2007
From drips to Dogma
I spend as much time on the backgrounds as on the figure, sometimes more I guess. The background is a contradiction. I want it to look effortless and timeless, I want it to look as if it is incidental to the subject, when in fact it is vital. This takes a lot of work. It’s amazing how much work goes into making something look like no work has gone into it.
The brush strokes in the backgrounds are part of the energy, they are often an escape valve for me when the brush strokes in the figure are confined to certain forms. I use the direction and energy of the brush strokes to define the background, just as I use them as such for the figure, or as much as I can – it’s a fight in the figure. I have to keep reminding myself that the brush is just a tool to get various amounts of paint onto particular areas of the panel to achieve certain effects.
I use big brushes because it hampers my innate sense of order. I make it so I physically can’t get the paint on to the degree of accuracy I want, because I feel it is the attempt that is important, and the success or failure of the attempt can be left as evidence of my intent, my passion if you like.
It is a process I’m undertaking not a picture I’m making. The picture is the result of my attempts, both my successes and my failures, to convey feeling and emotion. These are perhaps Dogma pictures, if I may borrow from Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg’s manifesto.
Posted by john at January 13, 2007 02:41 AM