CHOICE: 'Choosing between two or more possibilities'

I love this definition; it gets to the very core of my art practice.

Blessed with slow, often muddled, and decidedly unimaginative thinking, following a path of visual expression actually seems a great possibility for investigating perspectives on life. One further possibility is in choosing an intuitive and non-objective beginning to a painting which would give the possibility of making something unexpected, beyond my limited conscious thinking self.

The beginning then is part of a plan, part of a process the outcome unknown. Marks, shapes and colours randomly applied, yet generated from personal muscle memory, emotions or feeling, initially not connected in my conscious head space.

Then follows a slow period of adjustment, redacting out areas I don’t care for, or experimenting, placing in the new. Choices about the construction/design, values, temperature; a myriad of possibilities.

Now I start “listening” to the developing image seeking to understand what it may be expressing and how I might simplify it to a point of clarity…. A period of worry, lack of confidence, of getting too familiar, too tight.

Time to step away for a while, or opting to destroy the most precious bits that are actually holding me back… seeking out new possibilities. Picking up on where I have mistakenly gone wrong, placed the wrong shape or colour, lost the rawness or spaciousness.

A point in the making arrives when I think it ‘done’, a resolution achieved… however I know from experience further minute changes will be required more often than not. Just occasionally a painting materializes when magic happens, clarity is achieved quickly, a rare event.

Most of the time a period of contemplation happens for a connection to something, a thought I then research, and expand upon. I see and feel connections to my perspective of nature, life and to philosophical values.

I would like to share my images and not feel isolated… realistically each of us may go through the same experiences in life, yet we see them from different perspectives. It is not likeness I offer; it is one personal perspective I share, a difference… a difference which has the possibility of increasing an expansive world view.

ALD.14.09.2021

Intuition…..an ability to understand or know something without needing to think about it or use reason to discover it, or a feeling that shows this ability:

(knowledge from) an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts: