The Artist in a Pandemic

This year has been quite unlike any other. For me, two events coincided to effect radical change to my studio practice: the death of the last surviving aged parent, closely followed by the pandemic shutdown, meant that suddenly I had a lot of free time. I had not realized how much elder care and teaching had occupied my time and split my focus. Although teaching is my only stable source of income, the explosive unleashing of creative exploration I have experienced in these few months has made it well worth the loss.

For a long time I have been exploring the combination of abstract and symbolic elements with realist imagery. Some of the attempts have proven to be dead ends, but some have resulted in breakthroughs.

In a seminal body of work I call the ‘plaid’ series, I realized that I could invoke the narrative in assembled objects without reference to any realistic setting.

The Age of Anxiety. 90 x 120. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2007

Battle Cry. 60 x 30. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2008

Over the years I explored various ways of integrating diverse elements in paintings such as The Age of Anxiety, Battle Cry and The Saw Set War.

Evolution of Imagination The Saw Set. 90 x 90. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2011

Evolution of Imagination The Saw Set Army. 90 x 90. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2014

Evolution of Imagination The Saw Set War. 90 x 90. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2014

Le Violon d’Ingres +the Void heralded a progression into the use of pure abstraction, referencing Anish Kapoor’s sculpture The Void combined with a figure in the style of Ingres.

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During this pandemic ‘artist’s retreat’ I have been able to build on this concept. Two new bodies of work have emerged from this, both sharing the awareness of interplay between figure and ground, and a strong exploration of colour.

Cubed Roses. 85 x 85. Oil and Alkyd on Canvas. 2020

With Cubed Roses, I referenced my favourite abstract painter, Rothko, in the use of a simple square of colour floating on another colour. In my version of colour field abstraction, the geometric ‘object’ is enriched by a lush evocation of feminine imagery in tightly clustered pink roses.

Torso

A Ripple of Tulips

A Ruffle of Cockatoos.

A Splash of Lemon

I followed this piece with Torso, yellow roses compressed within the smooth sided abstraction of a human torso. A Splash of Lemon, A Ripple of Tulips and A Ruffle of Cockatoos continued this series of shapes in space.

Sèvres Blue

Scarlet Lake

Naples Yellow

The other figure and ground series continued the work of Le Violin d’Ingres by combining a figure with a purely abstract ground. Sèvres Blue, Scarlet Lake and Naples Yellow explore the emotive power of colour in support of the expressive gesture of the body.

Blue Nude #1

Shades of White

Blue Abstraction

At the same time, I began to play with  making abstract colour choices in otherwise realist figures, resulting in Blue Nude #1, Shades of White and Abstraction in Blue. I have plans to continue this thought in three new monochrome paintings exploring the three primary colours.

Because of the uninterrupted studio time during the pandemic, I think that ideas which have been slowly brewing over time have been able to coalesce. Producing a much greater volume of work has allowed me to see relationships more clearly than when works are made more slowly, interspersed within other explorations. The next step will be to get this work out onto gallery walls. My storage bins are bursting, and there is no end in sight to this geyser of ideas!