I went into an autonomous mode, sweeping paint and metallic leaf over the front of a found canvas. Sometimes this way of painting creates unexpected and successful results for me. This time was no exception.
Using an Art Nouveau book for inspiration (I remembered seeing some white organic lines and shapes whilst reading it).
I traced the image/lines onto the canvas.
The textures and layers are building up nicely on the flat support.
Depth, texture, intrigue, matt and gloss finishes side by side all build tension and movement.
Process Images
I used my sketchbook mind maps and thoughts in pencil to build ideas for my hybrid painting/readymade structure.
I stuck on some pearl beads (into the paint) as I liked the idea of this piece having a 3D ornament element.
I pushed and pulled the paint in various thicknesses using palette knives, brushes, my fingers, and a piece of card. The joy of making and not thinking, placing sweeps of buttery paint over and over, is thrilling.
The sculptured paint makes shadows and pleasing shapes within the surface tensions. This is important for me. I know that now.
Whilst looking through some books and papers, I found some butterfly wrapping paper.
The paper and my painting reminded me of Van Gogh's butterfly paintings - I mean, the colours and style of the mark-making.
I added some lace ribbon, cutting out the flowers and securing them to the surface. I'm not sure why. It just felt like the right thing to do to enhance the dimensions of the work's surface.
Figure 1 -Vincent Van Gogh Butterflies Oil on canvas
I used a metallic gold oil pastel to create a frottage over the surface, with golden highlights on the texture.
This gives depth to some regions of the piece.
Sensory looking over the matt and gloss finishes on the surface is pleasing.
The butterflies have been part glazed to appear revealed or in shadow, with more intrigue and layers.
The enjoyable process of building the mixed media of loose-flowing paint over the surfaces creates a tactile support and surface.
I want to use Rauschenberg's combines to reveal something in my work.
Instead, the previously researched Hieronymus Bosch's opening of triptychs revealed a new picturing world. I want to use the viewer to reveal the new concealed surface beneath.
I want the picture plane to move or slide an object to be played with.
I used my digital cutting machine to start making delicate motifs for a page cover for my painting/book.
I want the painting to be an object like a book with a page or cover.
I found a picture mount that is the same size as the painting.
I used some thin tracing paper to insert over the hole in the mount.
I cut out scales like those Klimt used in his work, and the pattern has been historically used back to the Japonisme. I like Klimt's pattern and ornament.
I used a wiggly brush pattern for the front cover, like the rhythm in Ryman's work.
Inside front cover
Glass bead gel is used in random flicks for the front cover mount edges.
The Butterfly book/Butterflux.
Mixed media on canvas and hinged mount 50 x 40 cm.
Front Cover.
Opened Up.
Video of the objecthood and moving picture plane.
Reflection.
Does my butterfly book have a presence?
Is it an object with a moving picture plane?
It is textured, with joints (visible).
Wet media has dried and caused the textured surface.
The door may need extra support depending on whether it is placed on a wall or opened up in a corner.
Could extra pages be placed inside to convey a narrative?
The piece is quite feminine and delicate. Is that what I wanted to convey?
The colours are serene and calm. Is that what I wanted?
I like the book's concept, and maybe I haven't achieved what I want. The butterfly book may be the prototype for something to flourish from, like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon.
I want to make more contemporary organic lines, more elegant and structured, maybe?
The Butterfly Book was created to be a hybrid object, a turning or folding of the picture plane.
Elements within it are partly inspired by Vincent Van Gogh's Butterflies and partly by the delicate and sensual white textural surfaces created by Robert Ryman.
Frank Auerbach's words had an impact on my process "Painting for me is a set of connections, a set of sensations of conflicting movements and experiences, which somehow, one hopes, has congealed or cohered or risen out of the battle into being an image that stands up for itself", Frank Auerbach.
I want to leave a timeless mark on the world and make things out of paint. Layer on layer, slowly building a universally understood language.
The intricate scale patterns of Klimt's paintings are employed with hybridity (the scale patterns cut out in 3D, a mix of pattern and paper), which communicates universally understood patterns and surfaces.
I thought of the object aspect and how the textures sit back and forth and dance over the surface like a butterfly's movement.
The line, colour, and tone further define the texture on the surface.
I used theatricality to reveal and open the new picture plane as Hieronymus Bosch did with his triptychs.
The concept of how I present and curate my work and what and how I make it are foremost in my mind.
I renamed the book 'Butterflux' and, with the inspiration of the Fluxus artists. Can or should it be made into a music box or game?
The language of painting is difficult to learn. Will I ever be fluent, and whom am I aiming to converse with?
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