Where Am I

I feel that I am aware of my context as a painter specifically in today’s art world. Increasingly women are making their places as artists and two contrasting painters, both women, come to mind immediately, the first is Etel Adnan. I mention Etel Adnan first as I find her particularly interesting in that she was […]

Halo

Header image: Oil on Paper, J.Waring Rago, 2015 Extending my previous post further Halo, (a synonym for aura – see Walter Benjamin) etymology: https://www.etymonline.com/word/halo Years ago, I decided that in painting, I wanted to work towards a sense of depth implied by an inner, radiant light one unaffected by the superficial. At the very beginning, I had […]

Random Wandering, Wondering

This wander that the line takes across the painting surface is also a wandering of wonderment in terms of that which it encounters along the way. These encounters are in terms of the detailing, in layers and the layput of the pictorial field. The element of wonderment causes the line to pause or change direction, […]

Face to Face – Emerging as Itself

  Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me, Afar down I see the huge first Nothing, I know I was even there, I waited unseen and always, and slept through the lethargic mist, And took my time, and took no hurt from the fetid carbon. https://iwp.uiowa.edu/whitmanweb/en/writings/song-of-myself/section-44   (moving top right towards bottom left)   […]

Cultivating a Commons

Image: Cultivating a Commons, oil on aluminium 125 x127 cm 2017 I was very pleased to have seen Steph’s post mentioning my work. The benefit of having appropriate peer response is really rewarding. Through her insightful perceptions Steph indicates common human ground between us. I am really looking forward to our meeting up at the residency in […]

Aura

Thinking aloud about this word aura, which has been mentioned by Jonathan in reference to Walter Benjamin’s writings concerning Art: Some etymology: https://www.etymonline.com/word/aura aura Synonyms Synonyms air, ambience (orambiance), aroma, atmosphere, climate, flavor, halo, karma, mood, nimbus, note, odor, patina, smell, temper, vibration (s) Related Words aureole (oraureola), mystique, romance; genius loci; feel, feeling, sensation, sense, spirit; attribute, character, characteristic, image, mark, notion, peculiarity, picture, property, trait; color, illusion, overtone, semblance, suggestion, tone and by alighting on some of the above words I can perhaps understand better and explicate more clearly my own work, enabling me to continuously re-evaluate it […]

Pictopoiesis,Practopoiesis

I made the painting shown in the header image, a few years ago, in the earlier days of clarifying my approach. I have a much better photo in my image library but this will do for now. In doing the painting, organising and unifying all of its elements I was reflecting on consciousness as an […]

Gesture

The second of Paul Coldwell’s lectures, at the very beginning reminds me to talk again about gesture, which has to do with the body and is closely associated with painting and its directness. Vitruvian Man – the proportions of the human body according to Leonardo da Vinci I have already written about the circular gesture, […]

Indefinite Suspension and/or Conclusion?

  The painting, begun on 11th October, has been taken to a point where I am thinking of it as being finished. I have to look at it, reflect over a period of time to see if it gains strength in itself, or falls short and if so, work out in what way it seems […]