Archive for August 29th, 2008
Heart Art
It may sound really soft, but when I paint I try to tap into my heart. When I feel most connected with what I am doing, it is as if the marks are directly coming out of inside of me from my heart and down my arm, through the brush! I don’t try to think when this is happening or intellectualise it, just feel it. I am often on the verge of tears while I am painting not because I am sad but because I have been opened. It is similar to the feeling you get when you hear a powerful, moving piece of music. I don’t know if anybody will ever feel this when they look at my work, but for me it is a signal that tells me to listen carefully I am onto something. Two writers that make me feel emotional about art are: Jeannette Winterson in her book Art Objects and Herman Hesse in his amazing book The Fairy tails of Herman Hesse, who is my favourite author. Hesse wrote a story called The Painter and also a story called If the war continues, which I also think is incredible! I also have to mention Derek Jarman here, when I was in college a great friend of mine introduced me to his book Modern Nature since then I have been a big fan, he lead an incredibly creative and heartfelt life.
Shelters and spaces to dream in
During this saturated cloud of a summer I am hugely grateful for these strong old stone walls. Though in sunnier climes I do recall enjoying a more out door life where shelters could be under trees, in valleys and other places in nature. When we renovated our adobe house in Spain we wanted it to feel and be as natural as possible. I love when inner spaces and outer spaces merge. In the painting Refuge I wanted to get across the feeling of living in nature, well sleeping, dreaming and washing I like to idea that it can still be quite elegant! In the painting, a white bed cover with a delicate floral print and white four poster bed-like mattress sits on the earth, with a similar style jug, towel and wash basin en-suite! This scene takes place under a tree on the brown earth, but the bed cover is not all covered in mud! I love the total impracticality of this! This is one of the reasons I love painting, because it does not have to be real, in the way we often think of reality, and it does not have to hold up a roof!!
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