My art style is changing
My art style is changing. How did this happen? Did I simply wake up one morning and go in a new direction? I don’t think so. For me it was a process. Indeed, it was one of which I was not cognisant for quite a while.
My principle interest for years had been that of pursuing greater excellence in the narrative representational style of my previous shows in New Zealand.
My Exhibition and Narrative Works
Where I diverged
However, I suspect my divergence from that which was familiar may have been precipitated by the unexpected death of my brother, Sam, who was only a year older than me. His death greatly affected me because we had grown closer in the years preceding his demise.
I reasoned that the best way I could honour his life, with the many tragedies he suffered, was to more fully embrace the gift that is my own life. Consequently, I purposed to forge a better life myself by trying challenging pursuits; and encouraging others to do likewise.
Saturday Morning FB Live
Soon I embarked on an almost year long Saturday morning Facebook Live video series, upstairs in the gallery of my business, creating the ‘Lauren and Paul’ work. I aimed to create a work redolent of important passions and interests of the couple, whilst creating a surrealistic painting. I loved the results and the FB Live experience was enlightening.
Business Pressure
As the pressure of running the business mounted, I played more with Inktense in the evenings. I used archival paper rather than contend with the mess of creating handmade rabbit skin gesso I’d used for ‘Out of Hand’. The series, Minutiae, renamed ‘Wabi Sabi‘, were embellished with gold where I ripped the surface when removing making fluid. Then came ‘7 Days’. It sold immediately.
Prayer and Meditation followed by Play
‘Rhema Meditation’ emerged from prayer and deep thought, followed by the boundary-free period of making ‘Rollercoaster I and II’. Next came ‘Can Red Come Out to Play?’, which was more structured than the earlier pieces.
Closing my business
After the close of my beloved business, I found the discipline of creating within the confines of circles, squares and triangles of ‘Can Blue Come Out to Play’ comforting.
Next, I arose to the 22 day challenge of daily paintings of ‘Southland Skies’, the ‘Dansey’s Pass’, and ‘Grebe Valley’ works where I worked semi-abstractly using impasto techniques.
Click the squares to see works from my 20 day Challenge
Journey to Nelson
Then I journeyed to Nelson to attend Majesty, a faith-based workshop-weekend of contemporary artists and learned about working in abstract from Amanda Watson.
The significance of that solo drive up the South Island is now impactful because I also met up with Allie Eagle, Jillian Wordsworth, and get introduced to Lorraine Higgins and lovely Marion. I wrote about this final time I would catch up with Allie, who was a friend and mentor in my post, Allie Eagle, Friend and Mentor. Click the link to read.
Back in Southland, after steering my Ipsum down byways down middle of the South Island with Lorraine, as co-pilot, to Cromwell, I returned to my studio to finish the two cloudscapes from the viewpoint at More’s Reserve, and created two from the North Otago region. These works, abstract and landscape, were displayed in the 2021 Dunedin Art Show. Abstract paper works sold.
Of my two Rahab sculptures, one was in the 2021 ILT Art Awards; the other at the Queenstown Recycle to Upcycle show.
Early 2022 I had a blast making “In the Pink”. It was a set made in celebration of shifting my art studio out of the lounge and into a former bedroom. You can read about it by clicking here.
Unfortunately, I debuted that series on the Metaverse two days before I got kicked off the because a hacker posted bad stuff on my personal FB page. You can read more about getting kicked off FB and the effect it had on my arts practice by clicking here.
In 2024, I’ll be re-launching that debut with spectacular prices for those who are on my email list. You can join that at the bottom of this page.
Persistence in being uncomfortable
My conclusion is this: persistently exploring “something different” over a course of several years produced a collective body of small abstract works.
I chose to respond to extraordinarily uncomfortable experiences by creating something unexpected. Surprisingly, this relieved me of anxiety-inducing expectations. I embraced the unknown by pursuing the unknown.
This is why my art style is changing.
I boldly march into a season of remodelling and repairing my older home. As opportunities often do, this one sprang up when my builder became available in the winter rather than the following spring.
Then, after taking the summer off, in May 2023, I set off on a year-long (and counting) pursuit of making 52 abstracts in 52 weeks. You can read about this endeavour by clicking here. ‘Moving On’ and ‘Hurly Burly‘ are the first collections from that.
This blog post updated on 3 October 2024
Earlier abstract works made evening when I owned a brick and mortar.
Larger landscapes. More’s Reserve, Riverton and Dunedin landscapes.
Unframed works from Can Blue Come Out to Play, and Primal Play, created right after I closed my business.
