‘Open Cut’

For the group crit show ‘Open Cut’ on 28th October we were looking at methods, practices or technics similar to our existing ones but looking a little deep and seeking to develop a richer understanding of our own practice and developing possibly a new technic or approach. I did not deviate to far from the ‘truth’ of my practice but chose to make a very small abstract painting using a very limited palette. The 15x15cm square canvas had an orange ground covering approximately half of the area then a deep ultramarine over the main section. Into the orange ground 3 vertical lines were scored using the end of the brush, the middle line terminated with a circular brush mark, reminiscent of artists such as Victor Pasmore. The Blue section had a mixture of vertical lines and 2 variations of oscillating horizontal lines, one being larger and wide, the other smaller and tighter, more oblique. The lines representing the transition from order to chaos.

The painting was well received in the crit with acknowledgments of how it had ben curated, e.g On the wall at 1.5m but with lots of vacant space around it giving it an implied importance or gravity. The less positive comments were about its size and mark making, it was to small or the marks were out of scale. There were of course people who dislike abstraction and tried to make it look like a landscape or city scape etc. Applying there own narrative on to it, however, one is accustomed to this type of critique.