Monday 1 August 2011

But is it art?


Several months’ worth of accidental paint spills and splatters on the white-glossed bench where I work.  This is how it looks today.  Next week it will be slightly different from this, and last week it was too.  Eventually it may end up as one big mess of brown, just like when you keep rolling varied colours of plasticine together and everything merges.  But today the hues are looking pretty vivid.



And here is my water pot, with its layers of accidental embellishment from every time I wipe a paint-loaded brush against its edge.  I’m sure if I consciously tried to decorate ceramics like this, I couldn’t achieve this effect.  Next week more trickles and drips in different colours will join these - the look is transient.



I just think it's all rather beautiful.  It makes me glad I'm so messy...


Here's a song....

10 comments:

  1. Yes, it is art! And gorgeous too. As you say, you probably wouldn't be able to achieve this effect if you were consciously trying for it. I have a v. old drawing board covered in paint stains and incised by a thousand scalpel cuts. And sometimes I look at it leaning against the wall and think one of these days I'll submit you to a show just on your own!

    Oh... the Art Attacks: genius!

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  2. It is a lifelong frustration to me that I am a totally non-artistic person. I appreciate, but I can't create. As part of my appreciation, I am always fascinated by the creative process of others, be it a preview of a work in progress or a glimpse into the artist's studio.

    My partner is an artist and finds it difficult to get into the zone unless her studio is just as she wants it, whereas at the other end of the scale Francis Bacon seemed to thrive on chaos and disorder as he worked.

    Thanks for this small peek into your studio.

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  3. Thanks, John, that's a great image you linked to. I also like quite a bit of what I've seen of John Squire's artwork.

    I'm glad you think it's gorgeous, A! Like you with your fabulous sounding drawing board, I almost feel like cutting this section out of the bench now to display it in its own right. Only prob being the rest of the bench would collapse and I wouldn't have anything to work on... hmmm...

    Thanks, The Swede! I'm sure you are creative in other ways, looking at your excellent blogs. I agree about other people's processes and the environments in which they like to work each being so varied and fascinating. I know what you must mean about your partner and 'the zone'(even if mine is a fairly messy one...) Might put more studio peeks on here in future.

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  4. It does look beautiful, especially the waterjug. Thanks for your Fairport sugggestion, am def gonna get What We Did on our Holidays! xx

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  5. Thanks, Smashingbird. Hope you enjoy the FC album - thanks to you I've been listening to them again too! xx

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  6. Ooh. Love the Fairports. And Sandy Denny. Her version of 'Banks of the Nile' one of the saddest and most beautiful songs ever.

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  7. A - are you sure you're not me?! 'Banks of the Nile'... oh...has me in tears every time...(mind you, I'm sure that's not an unusual reaction to it!)

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  8. Love those top two. Bit like the contents of your drawer before, these naturally occurring "works of art" somehow transform the mundane and ordinary into something beautiful with a mysterious past.

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  9. Oh thanks, Monkey. Yeah, I keep looking at my paint-splattered work surface and can't believe how beautiful it looks purely by accident. I think it's that very fact - that it's by accident - which makes it special and, as you say, the way mundane things can be so transformed.

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