6. A Tribute

(29/11/22) 

Today was a difficult day to attempt to function. The day prior I had to say goodbye to my beloved pet dog of 14 years. Today I came in with the intention of channeling the difficult emotions I have been experiencing into a painting. The prospect of catharsis by way of painting was a motivating factor for me, rather than throwing the day away to lay in bed waiting for the tide of grief to pass. 

The first task I set myself to was putting up a painting I had done in the H.E. lounge. This took some consideration of how I was going to mount the painting but I eventually decided on driving very thin nails through each corner of the board. This ended up supporting it quite well, and seeing the painting in a different context has made me realise how a surrounding can change a piece of work and how it translates to a viewer. Below I have attached some pictures of this.

After mounting the painting in the H.E. Lounge I began work on a a painting I had been desperate to do since waking up. I just didn’t know how it would look until I did it. I began by getting one of the boards I had painted white a couple of weeks prior as the base for the painting as it had a nice texture and I let my emotions take over. I spread oil paints all over my fingers and started smearing and scrawling. Sometimes gentle and sometieks aggressive. I wanted the painting to convey the helpless chaos that I had been feeling in the days prior. I had made a decent start to this painting. (Pictured Below) 

After looking at the work I had already done and considering what to add next, if anything, I felt as if the piece was lacking and sparse in the top portion. So I decided to put a strip of masking tape across the top just before where the oil paint started and put a strip of red. (Pictured Below) 

To me, this addition of the red block at the top was the last missing piece to the puzzle. It added so much but felt like so little to add. I had realised after that the colour scheme and proportion of the colour divide, in a way, mimicked a Marlboro Cigarette packet which is another interesting unconscious element to the piece, but I do very much enjoy simple logo colour schemes and formations such a Marlboro Cigarettes. (Picture Below)

With using a finger painting style approach to this painting to feel closer to the marks being made, this was partly inspired and informed by Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku who chooses to paint with her fingers rather than brushes, and the effects are quite beautiful. (Ayako Rokkaku’s Work Pictured Below) 

I very much enjoy the marks made when finger painting, sometimes I feel that a brush can be restrictive in expressing emotions and sometimes the texture made by a finger rather than a brush can convey more emotions. As for the structure of Rolkaku’s pieces, they are like what could be described as dream landscapes with vague representations of a landscape that can also be interpreted as complete abstraction of it weren’t for the upward and to the right motion that the colours seem to travel in. There are also cartoonish depictions in these works that can strike one as being child like or naive, but I believe that is where the beauty lies on these paintings. The colour schemes used are not only vibrant, but layered and complex in texture and the way they are mixed due to being painted with the fingers. These are works I could look at for hours and still find different layers and colours to be intrigued with. This finger mixing on colurs can be seen in my work along with finger prints, but I decided to use a more limited colour pallet as to not overcrowd the painting with conflicting colurs because I wanted a very stringing and bold effect. 

Overall, A very interesting tribute to my late dog Angus. 

I’ll leave it here for now, More later 

Lots of Love 

John Hancock X