Explaining this aside work.

Three completed works...

Why have I felt the need to work on this idea?

Interesting idea as I now feel the need for justification… I think I wanted to work on something, as if “something” wanted to come out of me. I did not think much, I just started on my making, as an intuitive thing... As I worked ideas were developed as they came along. I realised there was a flow and it was all coming fast. I decided to work on, with loads of ideas coming out, all fitting in to make sense. It was more important to concentrate on that, there was this urgency to go on. I enjoyed myself too, and I saw more ideas coming… I just could not stop…

The work quickly moved on to sequels, I bought some more materials and new canvases. This work has taken a new dimension now; I just cannot say when it is going to stop. I have six canvases size 60cm to 80cm each on which I am working on actually, three of them are what I am calling finished. I am now planning to have at least ten canvases completed as the whole work.

Why ten? Why not twenty? ... Why focusing on amount?

As I started with the sequels, there was a follow-up of what I was doing; one idea feeding onto another to emerge from and exist. I simply cannot say when to call it a finished work. I just know I will have to work on to find out. Hence, this is just all tentative right now and I cannot say in which direction all this will end up to.

This idea about creating only one work which can exist and “fill in” an entire gallery space had been an ambitious project which I had thought on in Year One. During the holiday season, I decided to give it a go as I felt more confident. I started on several canvases all at once, then realised after some time that things would have to be tidied up and polished if I really wanted to have a glimpse of how the finished outlook would look like. I am quite satisfied with the result, I feel very excited about this “unfolding” and I felt happy to have taken the initiative.

Why do I feel that there is a strong connection between this artwork and my “sculptural background”?

·   As I worked, I noticed that though I was aiming for the non-representational, I was subconsciously creating shapes and structures which I could also easily visualise as sculptures. 

·       I made use of tonal values to create the 3D effect in some aspects of the work; there was a definite suggestion on the illusion of the mass and volume present in the work.

·      The marks I was creating and concentrating on resembled the textural effects that I sought for in my sculptures.

·      At last, as I wanted some final touch on for “what comes forward”, and “what remained in the background”, I highlighted ideas as if I was doing a “patina” for a sculpture. On pondering over this way of working, I realised I was creating an individual method/ style which was different but also unique in its own way.