branches

since looking at Peter Doig’s paintings I have a thing about looking through branches. a lot of his earlier paintings have interlaced branches as the foreground, which is very interesting as they sit on the surface of the painting and negate the sense of depth. I can’t photograph this effect easily as my compact digital camera either focuses on the branches and refuses to “see” past them, or melds the branches into the generality of the picture.

here is the view of my garden from the workshop this morning. twisting, writhing branches everywhere, as the leaves are not out yet, they make a lattice you can see through.

springgarden.jpg

but the camera doesn’t pick them out like the eye does. I am fascinated by Doig’s work, and his process – using photos as the starting point, making drawings and etchings and small paintings, so that in the end, the paintings have very little from from the original image, but a great deal from the painter’s interior life, his memory, his imagination, and above all from how he works with the paint.

I am wondering how and if my processes of thought with clay and glaze echo this distillation and amplification of a spark, an idea, a point of origin.

more branches, in the roe deers’ wood where dead branches and trees lie around in a mad proliferation of lines and lattices.

branches.jpg

and a swamp quite like Doig’s painting “Swamped”.

swamp.jpg

the surface is a mosaic of leaves, which would make a great painting. hard to see from the photo. closer is better. but you just can’t do it with a little compact digital, and maybe not with any camera.

swampsurface.jpg

biscuit fired pots came out of the kiln, and another lot are going in today.

biscuitfired.jpg

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.