CREATING A TIMELESS MOMENT.
“A lot of intense time goes into creating a timeless moment. “
Artlovers have often commented that they feel they are in my paintings or in the moment the painting depicts, that they are experiencing it and not just viewing it.
Much time and preparation goes into creating this experience of now, of living this moment.
Paintings sometimes can appear as enormous puzzles in attempting to create a moment, a sense of now, of lasting immediacy, of transporting the viewer to a moment, not just a scene or a particular subject matter.
This is especially true of my refractionist paintings which seek to break down light into blocks of colour.
After sketching out the terrain, I then piece together different parts of the whole, painting what I see intuitively, in different sections of the canvas, trusting that the whole thing will pull together as I progress. That I am somehow building up a layers towards reaching a sense immediacy.
My paintings often have their greatest impact when viewed from a distance.
I like to work quickly, sketching outlines in paint, then tackling most interesting and often brightest parts of the painting first. I like to keep the paint light and work quickly as I can, excitedly trying to solve the puzzle in as quick a time as possible, otherwise the moment can be gone. Never to be reclaimed. This is why I try to avoid reworking or overpainting as I feel it is trying to paint something that has happened and is gone. If the painting does not work quickly it usually means it will not work. A painting is of a certain time period and exists no where else.
I may use my intellect to work out how to paint a painting but it is all in serving the purpose of immediacy, of feeling that one is in the moment. It is creating and in creating, expressing, a moment out of paint if you like, an eternal moment from a temporal activity.
I prepare and plan but it is the creative spirit which somehow holds all elements together, suspended in possibility. This is what makes art so exciting, invigorating and tantalizing. It is a transportation out of the world into order to create the new world expressed in a painting. It is a very intuitively guided pursuit, being driven and letting go in the same paradoxical moment.
One hopefully is also in the moment when looking at my paintings because all the elements of successfully been orchestrated, blended into this sense of present.
A lot of intense time goes into creating a timeless moment.
