As I am the worst decision maker
in the world, and there are so many colours available, I decided to limit
myself to a few in order to focus on other areas of the creative process. I spent
a lot of time previously deciding on colours, and even when I did finally
decide, there are so many variations of tone and shades within one colour. And I
get far too excited for colours!
Mondrian
is a great influence within my work and my interest in the subject of
spatialism. His limited use of colour in its purest form is clean and bold,
only using primary colours (blue, red and yellow) as well as black and white. This
is something I have decided to adopt this year as I thought it would allow me
to focus on other aspects of my work such as the effects of different materials
and the processes used to apply and manipulate them. Who would have thought that I
still find it difficult to decide on which colour to use! But it has pushed me
to make decisions and try a range of options such as what materials to use and
how to apply them.
I have found through using a wide variety of materials and different paints
that each hold different qualities that have allowed my work to develop in ways
I had not before considered. I have allowed paint to crack and peel, letting
each piece react differently depending on what and how I used materials on it. Works
have become time reliant, and change more as time passes, and others naturally
changed as I folded and handled them.
Below is an example of a piece which only involved one colour. I adopted a system based approach where aesthetic properties became second to preconceived ideas.
I find this idea of limiting your choice of colour within your work interesting concept. However have you considered choosing colours relative to your subject of the passing of time?
ReplyDeleteFor example some paint is more susceptible to light and will begin to change over time. Some may even oxidise when left in the open for an amount of time, or perhaps there could be something you could mix into your paint that would cause it to oxidise? It might be something to consider as you could see how time changes your painting this way. Drawing with silver also cause an oxidisation process.
To further this idea of passing time and how relative it is to light, we can consider that we measure enormous distances in light waves. We use this unit to understand how long it takes for the light of a distant star to reach us, a star that has a probability of having already burnt out and died. We are seeing time travel in this light; we are witnessing the past. And the only reason we can see this time travel is because of the light that is transporting it. More specifically because of the visible colour spectrum that this light carries and how it interact with the surfaces it lands upon; red yellow, orange, green, blue, indigo, violet. Perhaps this may also be something to consider.
However you are already interpreting this passage of time through the physicality of the paint and how time affects it this way. Perhaps combining the two would defeat this undercurrent of subtlety your painting convincingly interprets.