There are a couple of posts I want to write but I have struggled to organise my thoughts on them so I took a couple of days away from here. I think both are quite important, at least to me, and I think one in particular will be useful if any of the readers of this blog are artists so I want to get them right.
The first is the simpler one, it is simply the last two paintings I finished, the barrier paintings I have mentioned. They vex me. They do exactly what they set out to do but I don't like them. This is made worse by the fact that the things I am working on at the moment are a huge leap forwards in every way which makes everything else look weaker. I think the interestingness outweighs the concerns but I want to discuss both the explored theme and my unease with the work.
The second is harder and more ambitious. One of the things I saw in London was a show of topographical panoramic drawings made primarily using a camera obscura. The technical limitations of the images went hand with the use of this technology and (along with seeing some pages of Turner's prep work the same day) it has made me question the impact digital photography is having on my practice. This actually goes hand in hand with the panorama as an art form. As you know I have been experimenting with photo stitching and the way the artists chose their compositions was interesting; the limitations combined with the decision making process reflect the purpose of the drawings very clearly. Pulling together these strands - the mechanisation of image gathering, the effect this has on an artist, the unique challenges of panoramic composition, the importance and effects of purpose - in a way that is relevant to contemporary practice is the difficulty. I am now clear in my mind about their fit and the challenge is to communicate it and in particular the way that I think the existence of each of these problems provides the solutions to the others. This may well turn out to be more like an essay than a blog post.
So, yeah. If I'm a bit quiet this week that is why. These will take some proper work to do well. I'm only flagging them because I know I have regular readers now and I don't want to lose them by letting the blog look abandoned. In the meantime, I've just come back from a walk in the woods (it clears my head) so this evening I'll go through and see if I have any pretty pictures for you - the bluebells are pretty much there now in some parts of the wood.
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