I don’t always paint on the floor although, as you can see from the picture above, it’s the only way to get big paintings done. There’s something very basic and pure about laying out a piece of canvas out in front of you. A blank space to create – there’s nothing like it. Mind you, I always find it daunting when I arrive at this point, even when I know what I want to paint. I’m always wary of what I’m going to produce. Ironically things seldom turn out the way I plan it in my head. I’m always surprised by the direction the painting takes me – almost unconsciously steering me in odd directions.
In a bizarre twist, the process of building a frame, stretching, stapling, photographing and uploading the new works often takes longer than the actual process of producing the art. It’s worth the effort though. My working environment is very plain and simple – a tarpaulin sheet, paints, music and plenty of rubber gloves (err, actually it’s because enamels are hard to get off your hands!). I’m sure that as I grow older my back and knees will tell me that they’ve had enough and I can then look forward to painting on an easel like the grown ups do.
Making a mess is a great thing to do isn’t it? I mean, tidiness and order are backbones of my world but painting takes me away from that – to a place where nothing really matters. I just love to move paint around and make shapes and patterns or play with colours and the properties of paint. If you’ve never tried it then maybe you should. Who cares what it looks like. Just go paint. I have written an article on why I drip paint and what happens when I do.
The picture on the right shows a work in progress that I stopped to allow to dry. Often I need to drip paint over several weeks to fully allow one application to dry and cure before applying the next – it all depends on what look I’m trying to get. Sometimes I just spend a few hours in one go and am happy with it. It’s different every time which is one of the reasons I like doing it so much.
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