Abstract and Modern Art Paintings Blog

New studio, new paintings

Posted by Swarez on June 17, 2010  |  No Comments

Not much to say about these two bad boys except that they are the first two I have produced in my new studio. I have consolidated operations into one main studio now as it was getting a little to hard to organise myself between three locations. I have a good square footage of studio space now which is bathed in fantastic natural light – enough to take really good photographs of my work. What’s great about the space is that I can have an area to let things dry out and one to take photographs and one to paint in whilst still having room for all my materials and a piece of floor that I use to stretch canvases and glue frames together. Logistically this is heaven.

One year in paintings

Posted by Swarez on March 10, 2010  |  No Comments

Click image to see video

I decided to take a long, lingering look back at the past twelve months and piece together the paintings that best reflected the work I had done and the progress I have made. I think as artists we are always learning – whether it be about the technicalities of paint, discovering new applications or learning more about ourselves so it’s good to sometimes look back on the 80% you have achieved and not always at the 20% you haven’t.

Chaos Controlled – An artists guide to drip painting

Posted by Swarez on February 13, 2010  |  1 Comment

Click the photo to read the full post

It’s impossible, when talking about the techniques of drip or controlled pour painting, not to mention the influence of Jackson Pollock on the genre. His work is as controversial now as it was fifty years ago, yet whilst much is talked of the man and his paintings seldom is written about the actual process and techniques of drip painting or what an artist thinks about whilst he or she is engaged in their work. I will try and give you an insight into the technique from my own perspective, which is in no way linked to or copied from anyone else’s style or work.

How it all gets started

I lay a blank piece of canvas on the floor. At this point I know what colours I am using and the basic structure of what I want to produce. I can see very clearly what the finished article will look like. Right down to the sizes of the strokes, depth of colour, how many layers it will be composed of, how I’m going to thin the paints and in what order I will start. I spend a long time mixing colours and even longer on the thinning process, using a number of different thinning agents and in different ratios of paint to thinners. This affects how the painting will look when it dries.

The Great Modern Art Paradox

Posted by Swarez on February 3, 2010  |  2 Comments

You don’t have to understand or appreciate modern art to recognise the most shocking thing about it these days – there is no shock anymore. What was once the bastion of originality and pretentiousness has become mainstream and conservative and, despite more and more media attention for the genre, these days the controversy surrounding artists has all but gone forever. To me, the groundbreaking times we have enjoyed have gone. Not even the sight of Grayson Perry in a dress raises eyebrows anymore.

New Drip Painting in progress

Posted by Swarez on January 20, 2010  |  4 Comments

It’s been a while since I have had the motivation to get painting again. I haven’t been short of ideas – simply short on desire. Thankfully though I now have my creative head on again and have been working on this latest piece. It is the first time I have worked on a piece of unprimed canvas cloth. As i paint on the floor I have noticed that a lot of paint has gone straight through onto the carpet underneath which looks pretty cool!

The curse of the self-serve checkout

Posted by Swarez on January 10, 2010  |  10 Comments

The curse of the Self-Service Checkout

I’ve been a life-long hater of checkout queues. Even two or three people is enough to send me into a head shaking frenzy of disgust, often accompanied by a “..for God’s sake”, muttered loudly enough for people to turn round and stare. So it was with initial joy and happiness that I came upon that saviour of all mankind – the self-service checkout. I marvelled at her shiny stainless steel weighing scale, the excitement of her touch screen LCD, the  sultry way she invited me to “place my items on the scale”. It seemed as if the queue haters dreams had come true… or so it seemed.

Cold weather blues

Posted by Swarez on January 8, 2010  |  9 Comments

On days when the temperatures fall off the Kelvin scale I get particularly jittery about my paintings. In part this is due to the fact that my home studio (nee sieve, as it leaks like one) is about ten feet from the backdoor of the house and not IN it. I have none of the comforts of home even though I’m so close to it. Despite my best efforts to keep the warmth in and the continental ice shelf out  my efforts are always in vain. The ice wins every time.

Now where did I leave my inspiration?

Posted by Swarez on December 9, 2009  |  No Comments