A walk in the woods yielded little in the way of fresh inspirational images other than a few close-ups of dry leaves and twigs, bits of broken bark, primeval organic abstractions of crumbling fungal detritus, emblematic and evocative of arcane medieval interwoven wall hangings to ponder on. All a bit imaginatively out there and a tinge phantasmagoric, but with a complexity potentially taxing and tedious to draw for love or leaves and a white primed canvas was bored with waiting. The photo perspective at least a radical down to earth take on what we call 'the landscape'. (Click to enlarge.)*
Days later i happened to be sharing a glimpse of a recent crop circle drone footage video with a friend who was visiting. In itself an epitome of light, expansive, and far-seeing. Even then, i didn't know if or how this would give rise to a painting. Surprisingly since it did i'll take a leap forward now and show the whole painting as an instant uplift from leaves and then elaborate on how the video was a catalyst.
FIELD PATTERNS. Acrylic on canvas. 20" by 16".
Visually, artistically, abstractly even, the pervading basic colours of ripe crop, green field patterns blending into soft blue horizon haze of far distance felt and seemed to provide a theme, and even if it's seen as a scene it's the harmonious interrelationship of shaped colour that's of the essence of whatever it may mean.
So i followed the full drone footage in flow of folds of fields unfolding. Attentive when to pause at high points of balanced composition. Then with an aerial perspective zoom in to some further distant spot.
Expanding at least linearly by enlarging distant vistas. Then, knowing nothing about screen -shots and what-not, zoomed more precisely with a camera and got a couple of clear shots directly from the screen. One carefully measured for relative pictorial proportions and transcribed via pencil point to canvas.
If at a glance the painting might be assumed to be aspiring to be a photo, its not. Why when you've got a photo make a fake one? As with the leisured lilt of this literal language let alone likenesses it's the poetic juxtaposition of words for their shape, colour, sound, and flow. With a tendency to write in the same mode that i mix colours and make images. The poetic license of likeness is just fuel and foundation for refinement of feeling.
The largely unseen and therefore invisible part of a painting in progress is a palette. French for any bit of old cardboard and no big deal, but what goes on there is more than a mere distracted dab of a brush. Think alchemy, fine-tuning. What could be a more subtle process than combining pigments and refining the ratio to the utmost degree and often at length, going there just as often as you go to the painting.
What else to say about this painting, FIELD PATTERNS? It speaks clearly enough for itself. Took just three days to complete. The atmospheric soft blend of detail into distance offset by large warm foreground field shapes. Where three balls of light having laid down a crop formation lightly as any winged creature lays an egg.
A panoramic patchwork structured like stained glass, network of field borders punctuated by dotted trees like droplets on a web, musical notes or a string of beads. A healing image with gentle touch and minimal correction but for fine-tuning the tones of the large crop fields. Pale blue on white canvas the sky barely touched and all unlaboured. Just a harmonious piece of colour blending and balance with a flavour of calm lightness and peace. *
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Martin Rainbowmaker.
