Moving forward form Minestrone Group Show and new paintings.

Following on from the interim show I have been thinking about how to go forward. I am keen to start working on a series of paintings and have been thinking about many of the issues which came out of the show that were positive. 

I am keen to continue using the circular shaped tondo for this unit as I believe that this is one aspect of my practice that has been effective. I am also keen to start using colour again having boycotted it entirely in the two pieces created for the show. 

I made up a series of circular stretchers with the intention of stretching canvas over them. The process of creating the stretchers was fairly tricky as it involved cutting a series of squares of MDF into circles using a band saw and pivoting the center around a screw. In order to construct an edge for the stretchers I cut each end of 12 lengths of 2'' x 2" wood at a 15 degree angle and these were glued together in order to create a dodecagon (twelve sided shape). I glued this to the circular pieces of MDF and then repeated the process of making it circular.

Circular Tondo Stretcher with a dodecagon edge.

Circular Stretcher with canvas stretched over it.

Having attempted to stretch canvas over one of my series of  stretcher bars I realised that there were a number of problems. I found it impossible to stretch the canvas over the edge of the frames without creating a series of pleats along the edge. These were uneven distances apart creating a series of creases between the pleats. After trying a number of times to smooth these out with little success I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to paint directly onto the MDF after priming it with ghesso. 

Tondo Stretcher Frames being coated in gesso.

I have been attempting to experiment with paint by creating two paintings which were inspired by my invasive species collages from the previous unit. Although continuing to use the circle as a framing device for the work I used square canvasses as a base for these paintings.

Initial painting from the collage.

Fallopia Japonica, Paper Collage.

Finished painting, based on the paper collage, Oil on Canvas, 76 x 76cm

On reflection I believe that these pieces were partially unsuccessful in terms of the results that were achieved. I was unhappy with the interaction between the square canvas and the circular painting, although the drips and smudges of paint helped to create an interchange between the two. I aim to attempt further experimentation with a series of tondo pieces  as a way to test how they function autonomously without being situated within a backdrop.

One thing that was particularly effective with the two black and white tondo collages was the sense of movement that was created by placing the imagery in a circular shape around the center, meaning the work was accessible from which ever direction it was viewed and focused the attention of the viewer towards a central point. On account of their formal layout the invasive species paintings can be read from top to bottom or from side to side but do not function in terms of rotating around a central point.

Initial painting from the collage.

Herocleum Mantegazziamum, Paper Collage.

Finished painting, based on the paper collage, Oil on Canvas, 76 x 76cm.

I have talked a lot now about the use of colour within my work and I feel that within these pieces I have still used colour as a focal point, however I don't believe this undermines the content. One of the aspects that I have attempted to achieve is to paint in a less formulaic and contrived fashion attempting to loosen up in terms of the way in which I have rendered the subject matter and applied the paint to the canvas. I feel that this has been much more  effective than previous efforts and I am interested in experimenting by juxtaposing areas painted to a high finish alongside other areas which may be more loosely rendered. 

Stephen Bush, Duncan Renovator, 2012, oil and enamel on linen

 The contemporary Australian Artist Stephen Bush (1958- ) uses a mixture of enamel and oil paint in his recent landscape paintings. Bush's work references the history of painting as well as including such archetypes as the traveller, explorer, colonist and artist, in his work. His swirling vortices of paint recall the extreme atmospherics of early nineteenth-century Romantic sublime and picturesque painting. 

Stephen Bush, Camden Park, 2014, oil and enamel on canvas

 'It's a place of other, it's not a real place, it's an experience outside what we experience here. Alpine vistas as an ascension. Historically it ties up with romantic, spiritual notions, which I play with. Really, it's a metaphor for quests in life, escapes.'

The Sydney Morning Herald, The purple-tinged art of Stephen Bush, Sonia Harford, March 2014 

Stephen Bush, The Recliners were only the beginning, oil and enamel on linen.

Bush currently paints using intense, even lurid colour, deliberately aiming for shocking effects and clashing tones that saturate the retina. The disparate elements within his paintings appear to emerge from a psychedelic subconscious, clashing within his compositions that appears to mirror Bush's conflict between abstraction and representation. 

'The canvas is the repository for a melancholic stew: a mixture of sentiments wrapped up in the opportunity and struggle that the act of painting presents. Meaning and process—these ideas are such a tangle. There is no conscious logic, set of directions, or guidelines, that I follow. Rather, the picture is there, somewhere in the ether, and despite constant attempts to distract myself, the only way to find it is to start.' Phaidon, Inside the mind of Stephen Bush, February 2012

What I find particularly interesting about Bush's work is the way in which he combines his use of strong colour alongside the abstract and figurative elements within his paintings. The familiar alpine and pastoral landscapes, which on one level pay homage to the romantic landscapes of the C19th painters turn into uncomfortable viewing on account of the highly charged and saturated colours that he employs. 

This uncomfortable sensation is compounded by the fashion in which the recognizable landscapes are interspersed with abstracted drips, smears and large patches of colour acting together to break up and interrupt the familiar viewing of the landscape. The combined sensation is one of uneasiness. The viewer is able to acknowledge the recognizable landscapes that are presented to them, yet the saturated colourations and abstractions do not fit within the context that is presented creating the sensation of unease which becomes more pronounced the longer one stares at the picture surface, eventually taking precedence over the initial familiarity.