Introduction
Welcome to my first ever blog posting. I will be sure to break as many blog writing taboos as I can.
I felt that I needed to document my time here in Provence, in someway other than posting endless images and updates on Instagram and Wastebook Facebook. Both of which I think can be very toxic and harmful places, especially for artists, but I am sure that I will come onto that at a later date. In addition to writing informative posts about my art residency here, I plan to be fairly honest and maybe a little blunt at times. Some posts may touch on some slightly more serious topics which are personal to me, but I promise that there will be plenty of shits and giggles along the way. After all, I am here unsupervised, so really anything could happen!
Obviously I’m saying all this with no way to promise that you’re going to get any of the above, but we’ll see how it goes.
Where to Start?
So….why am I here in Provence?…….WHY AM I here in Provence? I must confess to asking myself the same question and pinching myself constantly, not helping is the fact that I often experience imposter syndrome, which has been well fed on the lead up to this and is continuing to receive a daily feed.
In short I am here to explore, observe and record the colour and light of Provence, also my responses to the landscape. As well as to absorb the “Place”. Having only been here for a few days I can say with all certainty that Provence has a quite fascinating identity.
It all started with one quick message from a collector of mine, asking if I could take on a commission for them inspired by the landscape of Provence to go with their new house. There was a quick, and quite cheeky, half joking response from me which was met rather favourably….leading me here…completely on my own…in rural France…with only my pick and mix of French, Spanish and Italian phrases, which is already causing some amusement amongst the locals.
Lets ‘s Go Back A Bit
As some of you may know, over the past 18 months or so, myself and my artwork have been on a journey, some may say a complete transformation, exploring how can we visualise the invisible. Specifically wind patterns, movement and behaviour. I found that the most effective way of expressing this was by stripping away all colour and relying on an extremely simple palette of mainly black with the odd bit of yellow ochre or cadmium red. My work since has seemed to explode with energy, expressionism as well as in proliferation. I simply love the new direction that my work has taken, and continues to lead me. Yet I often find myself reflecting on works of the past and my use of colour. Having made a fairly bold decision to pretty much dedicate myself to the use of black, as well as the long sort after proliferation and consistency that this move has brought about, could I ever go back to colour? would this not be a betrayal or contradiction? Somehow confuse my artistic identity. Or simply, could I be sabotaging a good spell? I had conceived of a time when what I had learnt from my work with black would inform a renewed, albeit more subtle, relationship back with colours. Certainly exploring how a simple colour palette could be used to great effect.
6 Months Ago
When I was first presented with this opportunity to go to Provence, undoubtedly one of the formative places for artists to go and study colour and light, the irony of a monochromatic painter turning up was not lost on me. I was quick to realise however that this was maybe just the tonic I was looking for….a chance to really observe and study the full colour gamut and the affect that light plays….plus I really like croissants!
New post coming soon! Until then take care and thank you for reading.