Inspirations and Experimentations Part 1

So, with my next Art Fair still a few weeks away, I've got a little breathing space. I'll try not to do what I did with Padiham, and let all the important work stack up until the last minute, when I then have to do it in a mad rush, but it's an uncomfortable truth that I've realised about myself; unless I'm really disciplined, that's normally how I do things. Anyway, the point is, I can relax for a few days at least.

So, I've been spending that time doing some more experimental pieces of work, which I have been wanting to find the time to do for a while. I have loads of ideas in my head of how to develope my work, but until now, not much time to try. So, I thought I'd document a bit of that, and also share some of the chief things that inspire me at the same time.





So, my chief inspiration for photo abstracts in general is; Mark Rothko, the Abstract Expressionist painter. He has been my favourite painter for several years now. I know abstract art isn't everyone's cup of chai, but it speaks deeply to me. When I was at uni I did my dissertation on Virginia Woolf and the stream of consciousness, and how that relates to ideas of the sub-conscious; an interest that's stayed with me ever since. I guess I like abstract art because to me, it speaks to that pre-verbal part of the brain, the bit where we feel things instinctually without being able to describe them in words. That's what Rothko means to me.

So a few years ago I was doing a a little bit of painting and quite a lot of photography and trying to work out what exactly I wanted to do with it, and then suddenly, this idea sprang into my mind. I was taking pictures of boats, and I saw how the two or three colours that a boat is painted actually looked a lot like the composition of a typical Rothko painting, so my first photographic series, "Rothko Boats" (I know, I'm not much of one when it comes to imaginative titles), was born. Here are some shots from that first series:

So, this is how the "Photo Abstracts" project, that I've been pursuing ever since, was born! Ok, I think that's enough for one day, but I'll be back soon to post more about artists and ideas that inspire me, and to share some of the progress I'm making getting my latest ideas out there!