making a painting - (part 2)

My painting has a good solid foundation now. It means I can build more paint on top and importantly work into the base layers to create texture and form.

Scraping, gouging, cutting, scoring, scouring.
Gentle rubbing.

With every action the depths can be revealed - a flash of yellow, a shadow of indigo.

It’s always inevitably early on in the making, that I find the urge to make scoring marks or draw in lines, almost overwhelming.
Sometimes I use graphite in tablet or stick form. Sometimes I choose a scratchy bamboo pen dipped in Indian ink.

I think I have said before how much I love process and where there is a process there are tools to aid me.
The photo below shows the ones in near constant use.



Making expressive marks is the whole point of my work.
The laying on of paint can make shifts and shadows of colour appear.
The scraping back and gouging of lines through layers, or the addition of graphite or ink can all create visual depth and narrative to the surface.


(detail of painting)

I make seemingly random choices of how the marks are made or where they are placed.
Who’s in control here?

Of course I have some knowledge of how my tools and materials can work for me but it’s that intuitive or subconscious bit that drives the way I make marks, I think.

Always bringing me back to the title that declared itself before the paint even touched the panel.

I will talk a bit more about how that works in the final post in this series.