After an enforced break, this month I am back in the studio and very much enjoying working again. Since the end of last year I have been letting other influences flow over me including two visits to the wonderful Turner exhibition at Tate Britain “Painting Set Free”, which were a catalyst in my understanding of his late work.
His artistic power was undimmed in his last decades and despite many health problems, this late visionary work I find ever more poignant and mysterious with the passing of time. My obsession with Turner was further enhance by the Mike Leigh movie, “Mr Turner” which I found a true work of cinematic wonder, it tries to do the impossible in revealing more than just facets of the great man but also get us closer to his inner vision.
Turner represents to me everything that an artist can be. He poured himself into his paintings and we see there the light and beauty of his mind, which contrasts tellingly with his more grounded, earthy and troubled self. The lesson is we should judge an artist by their work, not so much by there words and actions.
The romantic spirit, so strong in theses nineteenth century paintings, still seems to draws me in and I find increasingly a desire to express a more poetic vision in the face of so much contemporary cool. The first results this year are this new piece “At Sunset” partly also inspired by “Im Abentrot” the last of the Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss.
I have also returned to the Dance Drawings working with wonderful new dancers and I am soon to embark on an ambitious large new Dance Project and I hope to keep you up to date with its progress. More next time.
I would also belatedly like to wish you all a Happy New Year!
“At Sunset” Acrylic on Canvas 122/122cm
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