First inflection (working on it)
I mentioned before that Creative Explorer and I agreed on a shared project for this year: to respond, each month, to each other's work with one of our own. James drew the short straw, and it's with great excitement that I discovered his first image for the project yesterday.
My turn!
My first reaction to his photograph is that it was dizzyingly rich with possibilities. Being a ‘slow’ painter (mostly because I tend to work on up to fifty pieces at any one time), I was overtaken by a sense of panic at first: one month to absorb this image and do it justice with a work of my own.
But the beauty of this project is just this: this sense of it being important, of having a responsibility to honour another artist's work and follow through. And the sense of anticipation as you wait for what the other person will put on the table.
His photograph has occupied my mind since it landed. And what quelled the initial trepidation was simply this: to start working. To look at the image and listen to my own reactions - what did I find exciting? Where did my eye go?
There were dominant colours that grabbed my attention first (as usual, my mind when straight to my paint tubes and what pigments I could use). With its layers and transparencies, it reminded me of collages and monoprints. And that was a trigger. I printed several copies of it and started cutting the image into pieces, identifying some of the key visual relationships.
I've now reached a stage where I have a broad idea of what could do in response, a possible palette, and materials. Some of these need testing, and I also have to think about the right size. I know that I will probably do something that follows this first plan, and then the result won't be quite what I imagine (it never is), and I'll have to respond to the needs of my own work, and replan as I go. That's part of the process. I'm buzzing from this first batch of ideas.
Not revealing too much yet, but I'll be sharing the result when done…