I am going to called it “Refractionist” for now until my muse tells me otherwise!!
Abstract Landscape revisited
I am not sure if Abstract Landscape are what my paintings are exactly after researching other paintings in this ‘school’ – so I need a new name for this new style if anyone can oblige!??
Abstract Landscape
This painting is a painting technique that I have been developing over the last 6-9 months. It is a style I call “Abstract Landscape”. It is about breaking down the effect of light, usually sunlight, on colour into ‘component’ pieces of colour. For example in this painting “Fractured Light” which is essentially sunlight spilling through a woodland grove, the yellow or lime green leaves represent the light peeping through the top leaves of the various trees and the blue light suggest sky-hued light around edges of leaves as well as illustrating light falling in the distance, providing a depth of perception in the painting. It is a very difficult, time consuming technique at times. First one has to find a suitable photographed image and then this image has to be deconstructed into combined segements of colour and light. The style is also difficult and sore on my brain as it is almost as if I am painting a pre-perception stage of vision itself. By this I mean, that it is similar to the pre-construction phase that is said to occur when we actually construct perception, as perception is constructed not an automatic process. So in looking at this painting our brain can both enjoy the painting and also ‘construct’ our woodland groves in our own minds. It would be interesting if we could tell if all the images we construct are similar or are all differentially marked by our own perceptions and experiences.
Fractured Light
Fractured Light Painting
Perpetual Light
“Perpetual Light”
People have commented variously how this painting “captures sunshine”, “reminds me of hope”…and sometimes comments inform you about what the painting evokes in others and in a sense what it is about, almost.. The subject material here is one of my very favourite chapels in Wales. Not only is it the smallest but I also love it’s crooked bell tower. Mostly, I love how it is bathed in traditional Welsh white, unusual in that most chapels are not these days. This white helps catch the brillance of the sunshine, which puts it in start contrast to the “gloom” of the gravestones.Personally, unlike most perhaps, I love graveyards, particularly old ones; I love the gravestones and how they tell a thousand stories of people who have passed on but still “alive” in the memories and stories left behind. Some other comments have mentioned how the painting rises above the death association. I think it has done so because there is an intrinsic hope in sunshine isn’t there – that is what I have tried to capture in the sun. It is also clear that light and dark need each other, shadow and brilliance. Despair and hope. Beyond the graves there is a light, and the title of the painting points to a Christian reference, mentioned in relation to those who have moved on, “Let perpetual light shine upon him/her…”, so there is hope in this message, for some, of eternal light beyond the grave.