Untitled 11-m

Untitled 11-m

Oil on Linen

2011

I spent about three weeks worth of broken work on this painting - I think I've discovered quite a bit in doing so however, I can feel the way I manipulate the paint has changed

Untitled 11-j/k

Untitled 11-j (Top) and its partner Untitled 11-k (Bottom)

Oil on Linen 

2011

Untitled 11-i

For the past four weeks I've been working on a rather large painting at least by my standards, what is now Untitled 11-i. The painting measures 47" x 37" and at times as is usual when I find myself painting it has been incredibly trying, dreadful even.

Today though rather unexpectedly, I set to work and stood back from it after a few hours work and felt content with it for the first time, a detail of the second figures face and a full view of the painting are included after the jump.

Marching Band

You remember that steak we ate just now? Well, that's how it is. We live off one another. The shadow of dead meat is cast as soon as we are born.

- Francis Bacon in conversation with Michael Peppiatt

I've had this photo for a while, sitting in the album I keep of anonymous photographs - a marching band in full swing, its very dark and no one has any visible features other than their feet and the instruments which cover their faces. I often look at it and wonder how I might use it, and there is something in the shadows cast which spoke to me today - this might even turn into a painting, I've not decided quite yet.

The power of the photograph

I think, in the age of digital photography, we often take for granted the curious ability to instantly capture images, and see whether its desirable or not. Facebook has transformed (to an extent) the way which we see ourselves documented in the world, people upload photos, the good, the bad and sometimes just the plain ugly.

To this end then, I think the power of the photographic image has been lessened, though in the right hands it can still provide a powerful polarising image. Eadweard Muybridge provided an invaluable source of extensive photos of animals, and humans in motion. These wonderful images go through  a complete range of actions and articulations and are a truly fascinating study.

My practice relies upon relics, the forgotten and abandoned images of our past, though this wasnt always so.

Last years work, revolved around the use of photos which had a personal connection to myself. They are, of course my Grandparents moments, their memories contained within a series of small processed sheets dating from the late 1950s, to the early part of the 1960s one example of which you can see above. I imagine in another 50 years time their delicate nature will seem absolutely absurd, as increasingly as I mentioned earlier, Facebook and its prevalence amongst my generation means we have little need for a hard copy, everything is stored digitally [More after the jump].