Chatting with my paintings

I love to work in layers, and I really enjoy the richness that evolves out of a layered process. There’s a lovely sense of a story building, and it’s always interesting to see which parts of the early story endure, and which parts fade into the background as new elements are added.

The way I’ve said that makes it sound like it’s a passive process, where I simply add more layers on top and it’s a matter of fate or luck what is covered up and what continues to be revealed. It’s not like that at all. I am actively deciding what marks to add on top, how transparent or opaque I want those marks to be, which mediums will achieve the transparency or texture or colour I’m looking for, and where to place those marks.

And yet it also somehow doesn’t feel right to describe it as an entirely conscious process that I’m 100% in charge of. When I’m in the flow, there’s also a sense in which I feel like I’m listening to the painting, and in a kind of conversation with it, observing and responding, and feeling what it wants from me. A kind of collaboration in which I often (and ideally!) feel like I’m doing less directing and more following.

At least that’s how it goes when it goes well. I find that, for me, the hardest part about creating abstract art is figuring out how to switch off my bossy, analytical mind so that I can do this feeling, listening, following kind of collaboration with my painting.

I like to try to remember to take photos of my paintings while they’re in progress so that I can look back and see how they evolved. It feels like a kind of record of our conversation. Here’s how my chat with “I’ll think about it” went…

“I’ll think about it is available for purchase. You can find the full details here.