In response to Jimmy Hat

James is one of a few people to have asked me about the sources to my recent paintings. In there intial photoshop form and final painterly outcome there are certain quotations that could be close to pastiche. In certain works, Danae for instance, the quotation is clear and there is not intention to hide it. The figure and subject draws explicitally from Titians Danae series. I do believe though that in this instance I am trying to approach the issue from a slightly new position, as a 21st century young english painter, not a 16th Century Venetian artist. (I hope that sentence does not make it seem that I am comparing my little sketchy efforts to the supreme powers of Titian. I believe i am interested in a slightly darker and more tragic drama. I am also interested in pushing the figure towards abstraction. This menas the form can be manipulated and in this instance I like the notion of Danae's body become a curved container which catches the shower of light. This has obvious sexualised resonance with the story. I could be wrong and works such as this are obviouly coming very close to touch kitche.






My image and form series do not draw explicitally from any source in terms of either the figure or the subjectg matter. This is partly due to a slight lack of specific subject matter. They do show a fondness to the figures of mr O'donohugh but the quote is indirect.

The Icarus painting draws from no visual sources. Form the classical myth and from Ted Hughes Crow. Both these have been filtered through my own vain attempt to tackle the subject in a poem. Visually, however, the figure is entirely mine. Although it does draw on certain religious precedents.

The Adonis in the river lethe work. Unfinished and still not uploaded, draws purposelly form its source. That is infact where its meaning comes. The poem, written a few blogs back, looks to construct a story of Venus and Adonis, looking back to Titians work (whichdraws from Ovid) and again Ted Hughes crow with a nod to the kind of tragedy Shakespeare was a master of. The figure of Adonis is derivved from the grasp of Venus in Titians painting. Inthis case I fully dismiss any quotation as being kitche. I have purposelly drawn from this source to strike, hopefully, a emotive note. By remembering (in death) the now absent Venus and her visual plee for his love, the tragic nature of his death is hopefully reinforced. It is a vain attempt to try and collapse the causal plot of the story into one unified dramatic statment. perhaps it does not work, but the borrowing is not derivative.







The above image is the start of the painting. I have put it up here in its fresh form to help illustrate the point.

In some cases the borrowing goes through a considered process. I was keen to borro from Titian the pose of Lucretia in Tarquin and Lucreta. The painting and the horror of the subject matter fascinate me. I am keen, however, to convey a more detached, more generalised sense of horror. Some more unknown and less specific. Her pose to me conveys a particualr type of horrow. I thought if that was removed from the context of Tarquins attack then it could stil hold weight. I pushed this notion through an organic process in photoshop, to create a design. The result is a mere design for a possible paitning. (which will hopefully be better if compelted) She is now grabbing at fresh air, grasping at darkness. I have yet decide how far this could be pushed and still think it is a bit derivative. I thought it useful to demonstrate in one instance, however, the particular process gone through from source to potential outcome.






These examples show that I am struggling with my borrowings. Two years of an intense Art History course had its impact. Being immersed in the works of so many greats i have naturally been keen to use what i have learnt. It is natural that to start with I will be a bit too attached. I hope that I can prove the borrowings are not hierachical though. It is not some excercise to boost at Art historical knowledge. Iwould be just as happy to borrow from the internet, real life, newspapers and magazines in the search to convey a particualr visual outcome. I do belive that direct observation of the figure is a root i need to coniute to pursue. I will, however, be conintuing to look directly at previous artistic solutions and borrowing poses and figures without concern. We only need to look at the work of Titian, where virutally every painting quotes some precedent (often Michelangelo.) In our postmodern, semiological aware era we should realise that we can take something and byremving it from its original context into a new one give it new meaning. Nothing is of bounds and its use, however, direct, can avoid the ktiche if its final intention is different to that seen in the original. This is obviously a dangerous line to walk at times. I hope as I develop in the next few mothns that people will see I am after more than mere self aggrandising nods to past and present 'masters'.