Perceptions

There is no doubt in my mind that as one gets older ones perceptions change.  And so it is in the art world.  I mean I used to like pictorial art and probably why I was into photography for all these years.  Now that’s not to say I’ve gone off pictorial but I certainly seem to admire more and more the Impressionists and Expressionists works these days.  I’ve even found a liking for Abstract Expressionism, something I never thought would happen, but it has.

Much of this apart from growing older and more art experienced is the fact that health has a lot to do with art expresssion – in fact a whole lot to do with it.  More of you tends to end up on the canvas, sometimes to the detriment of the subject on a bad day! Expressionism however has always been about emotion and feeling with colours linked to just that in all sorts of ways.  So too that perceived “distortion” factor, where the perspective and true image is bent and reshaped by the passion or agitation and excitement felt by the artist during the art process.

But not all my stuff is tempered thus and I still manage to produce more mainstream acceptable work which is maybe with a touch of impressionist but classical.

African wall Art

This Art piece however is more modern than abstract and is destined as a wall Art on canvas in a basic stretch wooden frame.  It started off life simply as a black wood face mask which was worked on with a “Raku” like effect.  Raku is a unique pottery which is created with a specific ceramic firing process that uses both fire and smoke combined and during the process and while the raku pottery piece is still hot and glowing, it is placed inside a metal can full of combustible materials, or alternatively placed in straw. The straw or other combustables in turn burn and the resulting flames and gasses temper the pottery with amazing colours and textures.  To achieve good Raku is really quite a tricky process and here I’ve tried to replicate the effects as best I can.
The backgound was then worked on to create a Klimtesque patterning but in monochrome as opposed to the usual gold and red used by that famous artist.

Next time I’ll post a few images of what I call “progression” which are self portraits of the same person over a period of time, unless something else comes up of course – such is the fascination of blogs….