The second part of this self initiated project is in response to the first part. The figurative paintings and drawings done previously were not all together successful and I felt that without actual tuition in how to improve my observational skills to make a figurative painting look like a human rather than a prop from a horror film I should maybe redirect my energy into a looser more abstract form. I’m not a stranger to expressing myself through abstraction and do feel at ease with it, this may be in part due to the fact there is not a specific right or wrong when trying to depict something that does not have a recognisable or distinct representational form, portraiture is probably not or is ever going to be my forte.
I have been looking at abstract expressionism for some time and adore the work of Franz Kline as well as other, Kline was going to be one of the artists covered in my essay but he didn’t seem to fit squarely into any of the required categories being covered which I kind of like, who wants to be a conformist anyway?
My Starting point surrounded this idea of non conformist attitudes and how that could make one feel isolated or rejected, which is an interesting theory in itself, if one feels reject for being ‘outside ‘a group or section of society does that imply that one feels the need to be included in it? If one was not concerned with such thoughts then the feeling of rejection or exclusion would not exist. Either way the idea of not being in the norm of society and being able to exercise your freedom of expression in which ever way you choose was rather appealing.
I chose a black and white photograph of an elderly homeless man in Toronto Canada, I love the composition of the image, the stark contrast in shades and the very angular properties of the line. Heavy vertical and horizontal lines, a feeling of perspective subdued by the softer rounded lines of the figure and his belongings. I felt it was a very powerful image. One of the issues the individual maybe feeling is that of being dehumanised by society and although he is a real person with real wants and fears he has almost become an object himself, to be walked past and ignored. An object with a shape and a form, a form that can be simplified and diluted into pure form and indeed just a shape. This shape could be described in a tonal effect like a silhouette. Silhouettes however are usually flat and 2 dimensional, maybe I could give it a little character with texture and a looseness, a fleeting moment of paint or mark making, giving the motionless figure in a still photograph a small amount of movement or freedom?
I didn’t want to use a traditional canvas for this work and found a discarded fire brick on campus which was reminiscent of the colour and texture of the materials in the photograph, cold and angular. I used this to sketch a preliminary design which was then painted in acrylic. Moving up in scale I found 3 sections of panel, 2 approximately 100cmx50cm and the other 120cmx75cm. which again helped the narrative by using discarded and unwanted materials. Using Franz Kline as an inspiration and to adopt his philosophy of using everyday materials and rejecting the snobbery of expensive art materials and paint I chose to use house hold emulsion paint and a big brush. The basic idea was to paint in varying layers to build up some texture and also to overlay the colour to allow for the sense of movement and fleetingness, white over black then paint the black over the white to evoke an almost ghostly image. The larger board was to capture the whole image in loose shapes high lighted in the final stage with the addition of a small amount of gold leaf applied to the right hand diagonal line and some smaller flakes mixed into the paint and PVA which was used to thicken the paint. The smaller boards were magnifications of different elements within the larger image therefore the abstraction away from the photograph was complete. The gold leaf takes it emphasis from various cultures, in Chinese and eastern cultures gold was used to repair pottery or objects that were to precious to disregard, the gold was highlighted as part of the objects life and journey, giving it a character of its own. Secondly the idea that many homeless people migrate to big cities with possibly the dream or belief of finding happiness or wealth, the streets maybe paved with gold?
I’m unsure of how this project will be received or understood when critiqued but hopefully it can’t be any worse than the previous one, lets wait and see.
Michael Palmer 