Not every painting needs a salmon

One of the most challenging aspects of being a painter, is staring at a blank canvas/sheet of paper and wondering what to paint. To overcome this anxiety-inducing challenge, many artists, myself included, use tried and tested methods, formulas and/or rituals when approaching the creation of new work.

This week we were given the following assignment:

• do something with your art practice that might not work.
• Take the risk
• Post about it on your blog

Such a proposition would strike fear in the heart of any self-respecting perfectionist. To risk attempting something that “might not work” is the very thing the methods etc., mentioned above seek to avoid. Although I am one such perfectionist, I experimented with a couple of new methods of picture-making this week, and here are the results:

The first painting was the result of a set of coincidences I decided to follow in search of a subject to paint, which is not something I normally do.

• I was watching a programme that had a section about lave net salmon fishing.
• This got me thinking about the “Salmon of Knowledge” story of Irish mythology (of which I had made a little painting about earlier in the week)
• Just as I was thinking about this, a lady called Hazel appeared in another section of the programme, which I thought was a lovely coincidence, as the Salmon in the myth gained all the knowledge in the world by eating hazelnuts.
• I messaged my fella to tell him about this lovely coincidence, and he messaged back that he had a relative called Hazel who had been was a Hollywood movie star.
• I decided to watch one of Hazel’s movies – The Raven (directed by Roger Corman in 1963) – a comedy gothic horror extravaganza.
• My favourite bit was the flying chair near the end of the movie.
• Hey presto, a painting of a flying chair (and a blimmin salmon that I couldn’t resist including, but now regret I did).

The second experiment I tried, had to do with the thing I am currently most interested in, both intellectually and aesthetically, and that is water. Water features a lot in my work, and I am open to exploring new ways to represent it. So, for this experiment, I decided to veer away from my usual mediums and techniques, and try something new. I also decided that I wanted the work to interact with a natural source of water in some way. So, I smeared gouache (opaque watercolour type paint with a matt finish) on a canvas board and put it out in the rain. Once it was retrieved and dried, I doodled on it a bit (ok, a lot), and here is the result (along with the various stages along the way).

I really enjoyed the assignment this week. It is always good to explore different techniques, that can then be integrated into work down the line. Personally, I don’t find such exploration easy to do when left to my own devices. So, to have a little push is helpful, as roaming out of one’s comfort zone is almost always worth the risk.