For the past 6 months I have been studying visual arts at university. University like the rest of life struggles to let you be yourself without the need to pigeonhole you into a particular style or school of thought. Especially int he world of the arts. We all like to think we are originals but there is a part of the put them in a group thinkers that may have a point. As humans we are a product of our DNA and our life experience. We learn from those who have been before us and the influence of all of the learning experiences our each day.
My painting lecturer seemed quite pleased to be able to give me a style label offering. It was never something I particularly cared about, especially sinceI was keen on having to replicate my creations every-time I made something ‘new’. My house is after all filled with a plethora of my work and most of it is different to the last piece. My drawings probably hold together more with a cohesive style.
So it was interesting to investigate his suggestion of ‘biomorphic abstraction’. In simple terms, it is art created using rounded shapes from those found in nature. Seems broad enough and specific enough for me. Nature plays a huge part as a source of my inspiration. Curved and rounded forms are far more appealing to me than architectural rectangles in skyscraper forms. I’m not driven to create absolute accuracy and exact replica of the object or scene but more the feeling for me of engaging with it.
A few yers ago I was painting my feeling of dancing light. Now it’s landscapes with bright colours. it helps I live surrounded by green, cacophony of green in every direction. The longer I live with in it the more pixelated the environment has become. I’m unsure I have arrived at a static style but there are elements of biomorphic abstract forms in most of my work for the past decade. So I will sit with it for a while and play with the idea of creation.
This week’s painting comes after a semester of university and a fall which landed me in a wheel chair for a month, looking out at the world immediately around my home while I waited for my cracked bones to heal. It has inspired a need to care less and play more with what I have. After a life time to feeling like I had to care about everything so I would be liked and therefore my work liked, I am feeling the need to not care at all. To simply play along and see what happens. To that end a few paintings have arrived. Today this one is nearing finishing. It is for sure abstract. It is for me I painted it, to see what it would be. It has to do with rain.
Happy Day
Sandy