Michael Palmer

Farther Apart was a small group show with just three participants, Noelle Genevier, Janet McWilliam and myself. The title describes a situation when more than one object, place or person has a measurable distance that increases or has increased in the past, ‘Farther’ has a different meaning to ‘Further’ the later generally meaning to be a metaphorical or figurative distance not a measurable physical one.

FARTHER apart introduction

 

 

Noelle exhibited a film work of her journey on a Eurostar train accompanied with a map, Janet presented a large abstract painting (approx. 4x2m) made with large plastic rollers which were also displayed.

 

 

I exhibited 2 oil paintings completed within the last few weeks.

Hong Kong Protesters was hung along side Bubble Gum. Although painted as two separate works I hung them together as they represent a journey, both physical and metaphorically. The distance between present day Hong Kong and myself in the UK, The distance between Hong Kong and Chicago in the USA but also the fight and struggle the occupants of the works are trying negate or combat, these are many from the obvious political, social economic and racial to more subtle nuances of education freedom of speech and basic human rights. The Exhibition was also attended by artist Gordon Cheung, his views and opinions were greatly received.

 

 

Whilst thinking about further abstraction I had a rather unfortunate incident with a wasp… Well, more to the point the wasp had an unfortunate incident with my coffee whilst I was sitting outside at a café. The wasp (who may have had a caffeine addiction) dropped into my half finished coffee cup. It struggled at first and looked very pathetic, while this was happening I took a few photographs with my phone before throwing the remaining coffee into the nearby bush releasing the now somewhat upset and high insect.

Upon looking at the images later I liked the conflict and tension in the frame, the struggle of the wasp, the dissatisfaction by me at the expense of throwing away half a coffee but also in the combination of colour and texture on show, the hard white cup, the brown liquid and the furry, if not stingy, nature of the wasp, an interesting dichotomy. Taking the image further with an abstraction in mind I decided to paint the image. I chose to use an old 60x60cm square canvas which had a heavy textured finish from a previous painting I did. The texture would increase the complexity of the new painting and also give it a deeper colour gradient. The original photo was cropped to a point it was not at first obvious it was a cup of coffee. After completing the initial paining with the mixture of browns and whites I decided to add the wasp which obviously moved it away from abstraction and directly into the path of representation, however, the zoomed focus and the large scale of the work gives it an interesting feel and narrative. It is yet to be shown so will update on any comments or concerns.

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.

Thinking about the parameters of photography and specifically photojournalism and picking up on my recent visit to Tate Modern to see Wilhelm Sasnal’s Gaddafi series of paintings made me look at very recent world news stories and came across a photograph taken in Hong Kong of the current protests also known as the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement. An ongoing series of demonstrations which were triggered by the introduction of the fugitive offenders amendment bill by the Hong Kong government.

This photograph caught my attention partly from an aesthetic point of view, the shapes and colours together with the strong vertical lines but also the human nature of the image. These protesters, largely students, are fighting for a fundamental human right which is threatened to be taken away from them, they are defending themselves against an armed and highly trained national army with nothing but umbrellas workman’s hard hats and sticks.

I decided to represent this photograph as a semi-abstract painting, again partly for its aesthetics but also in showing my allegiance with their cause. The painting measures 60x60cm and is an oil on canvas. The canvas in fact is an old one I previously used a couple of years ago, it was an abstract geometric form in yellows with gold and silver leaf embellishments. The new image does in parts pay homage to this painting by way of allowing part of the underlying ‘grid’ to show through representing the firm grid of oppression and the bars that seek to keep the country under surveillance and control. Also flecks of the gold leaf appear as a reminder of both the light of truth but also the cost of capitalism.

 

I came across a very interesting photograph whilst online, it was titled ‘The Bubble Gum Kid’ taken in Chicago by Marvin E. Newman in 1950. The nature of this black and white photograph  appeared to show a young African-American boy aged around 9 or 10 walking purposefully, even with a bit of a swagger along the city sidewalk, right hand in his jacket pocket and left thumb tucked into his trousers all the while blowing an enormous bubble gum bubble! He was clearing have a fun time showing off his skills and performance for the photographer. The back drop however makes for a different scene. The area looks run down and in a less favourable side of town, an older white male walks away from us wearing a cloth cap passed a small parked car. The street looks dirty with old tenement buildings creating the perspective, it looks cold and somewhat bleak.

I was drawn to the image partly because it has captured a moment in time of a young boy enjoying himself, having fun as only a child can do, making any moment or time into play time. His appearance suggests a poor or difficult up bringing with old dirty clothes and worn shoes but the image is full of life and excitement. I wanted to paint this image but instead of slavishly copying I wanted to bring something new to the scene. Using a small Linen canvas I wanted to create a stripped down image, omitting the passing adult and the car, simplifying the buildings into abstract blocks and narrowing the field of view. I also decided to add colour to the image but only in places. The young boys skin would remain in black and white or to be more precise greyscale, the background and foreground would be various shades of green. Green because it gives the painting a warm natural glow, not of the cold grey street but of the boys inner calm and happiness, also tonally it works with the skin colour and the main focus of attention the bubble gum. I chose this to be pink. The abstraction of the buildings combined with the details of the face balances well with the green tones of the clothing.

I feel the painting stands alone from the original photograph although clearly influenced by it, it still highlights the joy and fun the boy is having, the pride he feels in his bubble achievement and focuses all the attention on him right now at that exact moment in time, what he was feeling and not the socio-economic ‘adult’ world surrounding him.

As a first MA group show we were tasked at very short notice (less than a week) to create a show in the R03 Fine Art project space a group show using the title Generations and Nations.  The basic concept  was introduced on the theme that each student would find an object or image from Farnham town centre and create one piece of work from that, this would then be shown in two iterations on the same day, a basic install and then after a group crit a more measured and refined install.

The image I chose was from the October 2019 issue of the Surrey Life Magazine from an article about the Guildford Town Crier David Peters talking about the history and traditions of the town crier and how it started in England but spread around the world in centuries past. The image was a full body shot in colour of the crier standing at the top of Guildford High Street in full traditional costume holding his official bell of office. The image was a slight undershot giving the figure an autoreactive stance added to the linier perspective of the buildings and architecture combined with the cobbled road in the foreground.

Initially I painted a rough watery oil sketch to be used as an underpainting, this was then quickly abstracted out to create a block geometric design eliminating the physical appearance of a human figure but keeping it as the main central image. The back ground was blocked out in a variety of bold colours and shapes but keeping some of the original perspectives of the buildings. The foreground was shown with brush strokes.

The feeling behind the interpretation of the show title was that the tradition behind the office of town crier dating back some 500 years and the history of what the town crier did in the way of public service and announcements in an era before literacy was common place, the invention of newspapers or television and social media where all news was slow to spread and often misrepresented or biased, this of course has a familiar note today but on a global scale, news is often biased and misrepresented but due to its instantaneous availability, 24hr a day,  news feed coverage is now limitless. The modern day town crier is just a ceremonial figure announcing royal weddings or local public events, it is a tourist friendly photo opportunity which bizarrely will end up on personal social media pages before the speaker has actually finished talking. His loud colourful flamboyant presentation of local information to a handful of tourist standing a few metres away will be available to millions of people at the click of a button. The disconnect is not the news itself, whether it be political, social, local or indeed playful but in the way it was reported… OYES! OYEZ! OYES! has become beep beep on a mobile phone.

Its been over a year since my last post so you would think life’s been dull and boring, the truth is far from it!

I graduated from UCA with a BA(hons) in Fine Art after a very stressful but ultimately rewarding year and have now embarked on a new journey which hopefully will be just as rewarding and energising (but probably more stressful)…

I have now enrolled on the Postgraduate Fine Art Masters Degree at UCA. So far its been great, meeting all the new faces and hearing about there journeys and seeing a sample of their work, they are all extremely talented and made me realise I need to up my game which in itself is exciting. I plan to be a bit more regular with updates from now on…..

Over the summer I have been working on a few abstract pieces which is a change of direction to what I was doing last semester, from large 1.5m canvas’

To small 30cm canvas’

Still oil on canvas or Linen but a definite shift and then also a couple of private commissions along the way which are different again… Have paints will travel!!!

For this exhibition I have been unsure of what work to submit (see previous blog). But I finally decided to paint a new picture based on a recent series of street scenes of interesting people. I chose to paint on a 61x51cm second hand canvas in oils. Hopefully this depiction will be more fitting for the gallery space and inner city feel to the other works in the exhibition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last blog was describing my unfinished but intended submission for the Steak & Beanz exhibition opening on 23td May 2018 at Safe House One London SE15 but after completing the work (bellow) I didn’t think it was suitable for that specific venue. Therefore, I started work on a different piece which will be in the next entry. The difference on the finished work is the addition of Gold leaf on the stripes and silver leaf for the stars, which in artificial light reflects and sparkles lovely. The leaf was added in a patchy and rubbed way to give the appearance of an old worn faded flag.