I want to believe that abstract painting can be as great as figuration, but this is a battle that must be fought on abstract art’s terms and not figuration’s.
Read More
Nanteos Exhibition
I am looking forward to exhibiting in my homeland next month. I will be showing paintings from my "Roll series" , made in the mid nineties alongside figurative Lino prints which are new. I have chosen to work figuratively for several reasons : as an interesting counterpoint to the completely abstract rolls; as monotone works to contrast with the full chroma rolls; to get me moving rapidly into print - I have been making lino prints very quickly and spontaneously . This has proved to be immensely rewarding, in terms of decision making (the figuration somehow neutralises the decisions and makes them more pragmatic ) and also in terms of letting me work anyway I chose . It is liberating to know you can do this and mean it . I will post images next month when the show opens.
Matisse - The Cut Outs at Tate Modern 2014
I would venture that much of the ambition in the Cut-Outs is to find an answer to Pollock and other large American mural-scaled works of the late 40s and early 50s. He was acutely aware of them, through his son Pierre, and also discussed them with Picasso (who was Eurocentric and ambivalent to them).
Read MoreMaking Painting: Turner and Frankenthaler
The two artists are represented by paintings and watercolours. In fact, water is one clear link between them: the way it carries colour, extending its reach into the corners, lapping against the edges, the bleeding and flowing of pigmented washes, suggestive of form or simply evocative of place as felt experience. It seems entirely appropriate therefore, that the show be held looking out on the spectacular backdrop of the North Sea on its way to meet with the English Channel. The gallery has light flooding in to its spaces and that mesmeric tidal flow framed by massive windows - nature's own watercolour.
Read MoreWords
Words are getting lighter and their impact more... or rather, simply..less.
Read MoreNEW EXHIBITION: "Room for Manoeuvre" . As part of the Critical Forum , The Brancaster Chronicles.
"ROOM FOR MANOEUVRE" An joint exhibition of new work: Emyr Williams and John Bunker
Unit 3 Project Space- Empson Street Studios , Empson St, London, E3 3LT
...a chance to open up and make some space for the scrutiny of self-conscious conventions which are often surreptitiously adopted in the guise of making ambitious art. In our different ways we hope to do this by placing greater importance upon the visually tactile and engaging dynamism that painting is unique in possessing.
By taking a transformative and questioning approach to abstract painting, we hope to celebrate and interrogate the dynamic , if tangled, histories within the modernist approach to practice. This visually rich and highly contested legacy continues to exude a magnetic negative/ positive charge in contemporary art and discourse. At a time when theory can turn from liberator to jailer, it may be worth remembering there's always room for manoeuvre.
"Oiler" acrylic on canvas 2013 - 51cm x 51cm
PRIVATE VIEW: SEPTEMBER 12TH 2013 : 6:30PM onwards
Work and transcripts of this show will be featured on the Abstract Critical website: www.abstractcritical.com
Reality and realisation
It takes time and considerable efforts and through this slog, an unforeseen acknowledgement emerges - you can point at it, but will (should) struggle to articulate it. It's a realisation rather than a reality - always in flux.
Read MoreStudio wall featuring some charcoal studies
Starting to develop some drawings in charcoal and I have been making some copies of other artists in this medium also.
Tones and colours
I am beginning to discover that figuration is best suited to tonal relationships, whereas colour is at it's most emphatic and far- reaching when it is abstract. Picasso's draughtsmanship was best realised in his drawings and prints and compromised somewhat in his paintings. I do not think that abstract art necessarily means an end to figuration either. The terms may need redefining anyway. It is about getting the most of out the medium - whatever medium you are working in.
Closeness
When looking at a work of art, we could measure our physical distance from it and get a number in either feet or metres, yet this measurement will be of little help in explaining the perception of distance we get when we look at the work. A work of art creates the sense of an illusory space in our minds, a space produced as a result of the interaction of colours, textures and forms. One has only to observe someone looking at an artwork in a gallery to see a judgement of this spatial distance in action — a viewer shifts their weight and moves in response to what they are seeing
Read MoreRecent Work
My recent work includes lots of collage and some new paintings - example below. I am starting to explore a more painterly approach in my work, possibly as the collages are also moving slightly from architectural type shapes to softer, curvier forms. I have just started making a number of watercolours too which I will concentrate on instead of collage to drive things forward towards the next major painting session.
Read MoreDRAWING OBSERVATIONS
I have spent quite a bit of time of late making drawings from artists including Titian, Rubens and Michelangelo and have been fascinated by the nature of their drawings: the role drawing played in their art,
Read MoreTitian on my mind
The transitions of colour at the edges of contours for example are most noticeable for the sheer amount of adjustment and also insertion of extra pieces of landscape or body to move the rhythm of the picture in evermore satisfying arabesques
Read MorePainting and Paternoster
The art world has always been and always will be decadent - merely a frond on society's fern. Until we solve our sociological problems we will not have a home for advanced painting that amounts to anything more than a tent in Paternoster square.
Read MoreStephen Lewis's new sculpture
...The work raises some interesting questions about how artists respond to a specific site brief, and - in a profound way - how we perceive space in an artwork - in this case through three-dimensional form - and how colour can define our sense of distance.
Read MoreWorld Trade Centre remembered
This was one of a series of drawings made at sunrise in a studio on the 91st floor in the World Trade Centre. Although made as abstract, I can't help but notice the plunging verticals that were so dramatic to see from the upper parts of the towers. This post is simply to remember that experience and is dedicated to the rememberence of this day and those who lost loved ones in those tragic events.
New work
These are the first works to emerge as a sort of consolidated series of "paintings" . They are all 40 cm square and made on pre-stretched canvas - I usually work on unstretched canvas. The surface has more variety perhaps than previous work with more use of transparent washes - possibly a knock on effect of printmaking. I am also moving into a looser handling and more open-ended drawing than in recent work. They are formative but something is going on that interests me. So that is a good thing..
Robert Welch show at The Eagle Gallery, London
...What I find most satisfying in the work though is the way colour gets across the surface. Something that abstract painters often suffer with is the centre / edge transition, so much so at times that you can almost draw an imaginary line 1 inch or so inside the perimeter of a work to find the real field of interest.
Read MoreHoyland show at Beaux Arts
There were some decent works on show with his now clear signature style of drawing. Looking across the show I felt there was a generalised choreography at play at times though, with more concern for presenting this look than questioning how the surfaces can reveal the colour in a more expressive and also a more inventive way.
Read MoreScreenprinting
Screenprinting is a challenging medium to work in I have found. It traditionally lends itself to imagery and has firmly routed itself as a medium that is at home in graphic design. Imagery is potent communicator - especially when information is required
Read More