New pen and ink drawings on paper.

'The past lives on in art and memory, but it is not static: it shifts and changes as the present throws its shadow backwards. The landscape also changes, but far more slowly; it is a living link between what we were and what we have become. This is one of the reasons why we feel such a profound and disproportionate anguish when a loved landscape is altered out of recognition; we lose not only a place, but ourselves a continuity between the shifting phases of our life.'  (Drabble, 2009; 270)

 Having reflected in a previous post on the relative successes of 
the silk screens I produced as a direct response to the changeable and ever shifting landscape of the North Norfolk Coast of Burnham Overy Staithe's sand dunes and salt marshes I was keen to experiment with alternative ways and processes in order to depict the subject matter. I experimented by rendering these images on a much larger scale of 70 x 100cm. I was keen to see how this would compare to the silk screened versions and whether the much more labour intensive, hand crafted versions added anything to the process of experimentation which related back to my original research interests.

Photographs of the coastal landscape after being subjected to distortion via the process of scanning.

In order to inform these images and as subject matter I used the same process of manipulation that I used in order to inform the imagery for my silkscreens, which involved re-scanning print outs of photos taken during a walk at Burnham Overy Staithe which I moved around during the scanning process in order to create a sense of movement and distortion. The three images I have posted directly below are the results of rendering these images using black rotring ink on fabriano paper.

Tracing the Archetypal, Pen and Ink on Paper, 70 x 100cm

Counterfeit Landscape, Pen and Ink on Paper, 70 x 100cm

Simulacrum, Pen and Ink on Paper, 70 x 100cm

Claude Heath (1964 -) questions the relationship between the world of sensation and ourselves within his work. Heath's wall drawings move between being the subject and object of the artists and our imagination. 

Claude Heath, Waterfall 2013, Installation Shot, Wall Drawing.

  

   Claude Heath, Waterfall 2013 (detail)

Claude Heath, Waterfall 2013, end wall.

Heath drawings look like various things - high-density doodles, computer printouts bearing multi-dimensional information. But you don't need to look at them long to see that they are, at least, not free-form abstractions. These intense, hairball tangles of spidery lines, often in several different colours, seem to grope their way towards some kind of legibility or materialisation.

Yet they remain phantoms of the forms that they represent; firstly in the sense that they have a ghostly yet still recognisable relationship with the object they are based on and secondly they are born from an absence (the artist's gaze onto the page which he is drawing). There is as a result, a purposely unresolved and awkward fusion between that which is real and that which is imagined. 

I felt that there were many positive and some negative factors emerging from my recent drawings in relation to my earlier silk screens. Whereas the silk screens were executed on a scale of around 26 x 40cm the pen and ink drawings are operating on a considerably larger scale. When combined with their hand crafted quality alongside the length of time it took to execute them, they felt much more finished and resolved and alot less like experimental pieces. As with Heath's Waterfall wall drawing I am interested in the interplay and exchange between the reality of the scene being depicted alongside the changing and shifting nature of the image as something that has a dreamlike appearance, a few steps removed from reality.

One of the positive qualities with regards to the silk screens was the fact that although executed relatively quickly they created an impression of spontaneity and crudeness which combined effectively with some of the marks and mistakes from the silk screen process as well as the movement and distortion created as a by-product of the scanning process. This contrasted with the graphic imagery created via the use of pen and ink, with the potential for it to be interpreted as more formulaic with less room for spontaneity or errors. However the time taken to produce the drawings, the quality of the mark making and the ambiguity of the subject matter meant that they possessed a much more finished and satisfying quality in relation to the more sketchy nature of the silk screened images.


I took the opportunity to visit the Sigmar Polke exhibition: Alibis, 1963-2010 at the Tate Modern. I was particularly interested in the fashion with which Polke utilised technology within his work as a way of creating distortion within the imagery as well as the fashion with which he juxtaposes both painterly and printed marks.

Sigmar Polke, Untitled (Triptych) 2002, polyester resin and acrylic paint on fabric

From his earliest practice Sigmar Polke emphasised a dynamic tension between expression, gesture and mechanical reproduction. His paintings combined found printed images with more organically made painterly marks. Making use of half-tone photography from newspapers and magazines Polke enlarged and reproduced the imagery often corrupting the original beyond recognition. 

Sigmar Polke, Fear (Black Man) 1997, Synthetic resin and lacquer on polyester fabric

'Printing Errors,' were a large group of paintings Polke created between 1996-98 in which he examined, much enlarged, minute ink slippages and spillages that read as errors on the printed page. Polke made others by manipulating photocopies during the copying process to create distortions of the imagery he was copying such as the image above, Fear (Black Man). Some errors bore close resemblances to details in the images in which they occured. By making use of a half-tone printing technique he helped to convert the visual image into a pattern of even-sized units consisting of a dotted diamond pattern.

Perhaps most intriguing for me is the fashion with which Polke has created a sense of tension within his work by combining a number of opposing elements including the mechanical nature of the printed imagery alongside the more organic painterly marks. In moving forward I am interested to see what would happen within my own work by combining gestural painterly marks alongside the more structured, precise marks created via the process of silk screen printing. Similarly I am also interested in experimenting by re-introducing areas of colour into my compositions which would be interesting to juxtapose alongside the monotone areas with the aim of creating an underlying tension, dynamic and interplay between a variety of opposing elements. 

Drabble, M (2009) 'A Writer's Britain.' London: Thames & Hudson.

Circular tondos vs rectangular picture compositions.

In going forward, I am interested in addressing which is more effective in terms of my experimentation, the circular tondos or the rectangular compositions as a way of addressing my research interests. Although I have rejected the overlayed geometric patterns which were the product of my initial experimentation, I have included these in the mock ups below as part of my work in progress in order to critique the elements I consider to be effective alongside the elements that I consider to be less successful for each of the compositions.

Circular tondo vs a more conventional rectangular composition:

Circular composition:

Round, spherical objects in nature are considered to be perfect, complete and stable. A round or spherical composition is an effective way to depict another world, the circle helping to accentuate the otherness of the composition in order to give the appearance of looking through a portal or window and capturing a particular moment in time.

Rectangular composition: 

A rectangular or square composition is less ambiguous and open to interpretation on account of the fact that it has a top and a bottom as well as being read from left to right and vice versa. In the same fashion standing in a landscape is characterised by having the sky at the top and the land at the bottom. Similarly it functions in a different fashion to the tondo on account of the fact that it has been used regularly throughout art history and is therefore more conventional and easier to relate to.
 
How does this function in relation to my research interests:

My research to date has very much been about the experience of being in a place. The places that I have chosen as my subject matter are places that I have visited over an extended period of time throughout my life. I feel therefore that the experience is very much about being situated within the present day as opposed to the past! As a result the circular tondo composition which is able function as a portal and way of looking back in time is not necessarily applicable. The more conventional rectangular composition however I feel is more applicable on account of the fact that it is easily recognisable and able to contain a personal narrative on account of the fact of it having a top, a bottom and sides and therefore relating directly to the landscape. 

Observing the two mock ups above I feel that there is a much stronger sense of place attached to the composition containing the rectangular images due to the fact that the imagery is more recognisable as being derived directly from the landscape. This has also resulted in a stronger sense of narrative, which can be attributed to the pieces. The circular compositions appear much more ambiguous in terms of their interpretation which is accentuated on account of their roundness meaning they do not conform to how we imagine the landscape to be. 

Going forward....

I feel that my experimentation with the tondo compositions has been valid and worthwhile but in going forward with future work do not feel that they are a suitable format for the outcomes that I am aiming for in terms of the experience of being in the landscape. I feel that the rectangular more conventional compositions offer this in a much more effective fashion.