ianwarburton

secure. oil on canvas.160x120cms end of winter. oil on paper. 78x65cms beginning. oil on paper.78x65cms wood. oil on paper.78x65cms  There is a lot to painting that is intuitive: no planning survives first contact with the surface. This though from Peter Lanyon: A specific sight or occurrence may cause an apprehensive reaction, answers are expected. A continuous process of collecting and sifting information which is being fed to the artist who trains to select information which is relevant and proceeds to make marks in apparently automatic fashion. Considerable training is required to precipitate marks which relate to information received. The artist must proceed beyond the inspired guess to certainty. The surest way to inhibit painting is to remain at the guess.

oil on paper. 68x75cms.  oil on paper.68x75cms oil on paper. 68x75cms oil on paper. 68x75cms oil on paper. 69x100cms  My garden is coming alive:the shadows are not strong yet in the sunlight and even on overcast days there is more light. I have a trove of photographs, mostly black and white, which I trawl through when I think that the landscape is exerting too much of a pull. I refer to paintings history for the same reason and it is not a contradiction because I know that I could easily be overwhelmed by what the garden or the fields look like and that is not what I want might painting to become. I do though sail perilously close at times. There is so much detail and so much expanse, too much really and it requires an effort to try to isolate and develop the essentials. So I ask what am I looking at, what am I seeing, what sense can I make of it? Let me not lose sight of the fact that after all is said and done it is paint on a flat surface, a place where thinking can take pl...