4. A New Skull

(21/3/23)
Today I felt extremely ready and almost jumping out of myself to paint. During the week i had been building up a lot of tension within myself due to life circumstances and my emotions as a result. I started by hanging up a fresh sheet of calico and primed it lightly with white emulsion paint to start the new painting. After that I did not have in mind an outcome for the new piece so I started making wild gestural sporadic marks over the calico with Oil pastels, soft pastels, charcole and wax crayons. I implemented this process in order to throw myself into the painting, adding raw energy through my physicality while creating. The result was a swirling and colliding mix of multicoloured lines and marks that appeared as if they were tangled with one another to create one unified ball of chaos. The colours I used were fairly random as I was merely using the materials I had with me at my work station which was a mix of various pastels I have acquired along my travels and studies, so with regard to the colours used there was little regard to complementary colours, which creates a very interesting mixture of colour that appears quite child like and naive upon first glance, but it is a more naive and chaotic style I am attempting to attain in this painting. The next step in the process was applying a pink rose colour oil paint in the rough shape of a head or skull in the centre of the sheet of calico. Picking the rose colour as I enjoyed its contrast to the marks I had already made. In the process of creating this I had the idea of there being a face or a head in the middle of the painting so I made the rough shape of a head with some gentiral marks that I applied partially with my hand and partially with a paint brush for the aforementioned desired chaotic effect. I then began smearing paints with my hands around the head form as a background. Again the colour choice was in a way random as I utilised small tubes of oil paint that I had amassed over the years, mixing various shades of the same colours together to acheive a swirling and smearing effect that really enhances the depth of the painting , I also added some gestural marks in this paint with the end of a paint brush. After this I added the rough shape of a mouth as a place holder with some dark blue and purple paints. 
My next step was to add a black painted bar where there should be eyes on the head as I felt the black bar anonymised the face and evoked a pained quality of having been captured or blinding itself as to not have the burden of seeing whatever faces it. This along with the gnarling void of the mouth adds a grim element thag really emphasises a pained expression that fights agains the unrelenting force of life as it is pushed unpin the disembodied head. 
After that I pained the inside of the face a sickly grey colour to alienate it form resembling anything human other than the vague form of the head, eye space and mouth.
Below I will attach pictures from various points of progress. 
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1-MTnlMWTs4yJ67GsYsbai7ipM6vjuQ0chttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Qq3B5NJ8c7QJEpMBZVUhSPiIe-Tg9vXGhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=13bCCJrPh6ZhTVAb8xA7PQgXUUIwhJANZ

A point of inspiration for this piece is the artist Jean Michel Basquiat. As I look at this painting it is undeniable that his work has had influence on the painting. Especially in the sporadic mark making and naive style that I have implemented. There are also similarities in the colours used in his work, although I feel his work has a stronger cohesion of colours that compliment each other, never the less his work has influencers this piece undoubtedly. Even the head shape I have implemented has appeared in Basquiat paintings. Below I will attatch some examples. 

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1T6MOF7DdfclpaZ-YM7n3wj5UC77gEYN1https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1PDWxE9omr4ob9_x-UOGjzXT3IwPnyheIhttps://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=1Y3VsPb9_0CEkdVQBSrZmmGEJGjBtdS0z

As you can see from the examples I have provided there is the form of a head / face and and spurs doc scrawled markings that have been applied with vigour and a mixed media approach, with parts having been painted over , as I have also done in my piece. There is a rawness and depth to Basquiat paintings that I feel as If i have touched on slightly in my painting, although my painting feels a lot simpler and less busy, but I feel the gestural and energetic approach I have implemented has translated into the work and consequently given the piece a raw energy that is a kin to Basquiat in a way, not comparing or equating his work to mine, but pointing out the influence his work has had on this piece. 

Lots of love 

More Later 

John Hancock X 

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