The original idea for ‘Science of a Cloud’ came about when I acquired some glass shelving from a closing down store.
I envisioned a white wall gallery with a sky blue horizontal strip running around the room, roughly average height eye level, the width of the glass shelving. The shelving itself would be hung an inch or so away from the wall, with clouds painted upon them.
It is all about trying to create space within my works because that is what our sky is, endless space. Be that through painting in layers (Spaceship (yeah, remember that piece? It is still on going!)) or physically using space between materials.
However experimenting with box frames highlighted an issue I had not originally considered. Shadows.
Excruciatingly late the other night the idea of pouring a pure blue layer of paint on top of the painted clouds struck and so hence the blue blobs. Once these dry I will do the same on the reverse side of the glass over the remaining clouds to see whether the thickness of the glass between two layers of paint has an effect or whether a clear pane of glass in front of two layers of glass works better. If any of that makes any sense.
I am feeling this is finally a step forward towards having the confidence to start on the works. Which is all utterly ridiculous. University truly destroyed my confidence to be able to even freely experiment before having to explain my reasons for experimenting in the first place.
BBC 4 have a wonderful series called “What Do Artists Do All Day?”. Shani Rhys James was the subject for one of these episodes I watched recently and a statement by her has really struck me and I am finding it incredibly freeing.
“You see the thing with a painting is, if I knew how to do it I wouldn’t do it, would I? If I knew what I was going to do with it I wouldn’t do it because it would be really boring”
Shani Rhys James
Daily Scribblings, Doodles & Sketches 