I've just completed another abstract painting and documented the stages in a short video. But in this post, I would like to discuss my current process which includes the use of dots, as you can see in the completed image.
This particular design was inspired by the bark and lichen of a tree I frequently pass on my walks, the intricate, striated patterns and scalloped edges of which remind me of brain mapping images.
I worked intuitively, blocking in passages of colour in ink, acrylics, and colored pencil, despairing of ever bringing the painting to fruition, before finally resolving the composition by linking the elements with the chain of minuscule white dots — small flashes of light.
Recently, someone asked me why I've been using dots in my designs, wanting to know whether I was copying Australian Aboriginal art. I replied that dot painting has been used in innovative ways by many artists — including Van Gogh, the Pointillists, and in the modern era, Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hurst and Ross Bleckner. And, while I greatly admire Indigenous art, it is not my source of inspiration.
At a purely aesthetic level, the use of dots in my current work creates dimensionality in a way I find pleasing. But at a deeper level it is influenced by the need to make connections — between humanity and nature, and as a process of intrapersonal integration. It mirrors the internal process of pattern-making: of connecting the threads of life-experience to make a cohesive structure.
Through observation, meditation, and reflection I make meaning; and I externalize and share the results of this process, using my abstract paintings as a vehicle.
You can view the video on YouTube HERE.
Comments