Wednesday 20 March 2019

Art from the Ocean

Here's my final composition (I think) for the 'Tropos 3' collage-painting. I've added a few little cumulus clouds on the right and I've developed what was a weak area in the sea on the right using a sword liner, a water spray-mister and a shaper tool. The risk in art is to go too far and loose the magic by over doing things, such as adding too much detail or complexity where simpler might be more effective through suggestion. It's probably too early for me to judge whether this is an improvement or not but if you don't follow your hunches with paintings they can miss their expressive potential. I think we have to follow creative instinct: if after a few weeks the painting is saying "more to be done" then it has to be changed somehow. It could be small changes or it might have to be a radical rethink, but things evolve over time and its hard to know if the current state of the work is just intermediate, but for now this is as far as I can go.

Tropos3, acrylic and laser print on canvas.
In fact it's probably time to start several more pieces and to up the scale in order to think about the idea in different ways and get a clearer perspective on the work and what its potential is as art. I'm in discussion wit the scientists at Leipzig University about doing something much more ambitious with their TROPOS atmospheric data followed by an exhibition and a catalogue with essays. I'm hoping the Alfred Wegener Institute will be interested in supporting it and also searching for possible art-science funding from the European Union before the UK crashes out of it.

Meanwhile the oceans keep warming and absorbing acidifying CO2 and the algae and plankton populations, that affect the colour of the surface waters, continue to change, as does the weather that allows illuminating sunlight through. These paintings don't illustrate climate change science, but if they are any good as art they will help some people to contemplate the beauty of the sea and its hidden life beneath the surface as a phenomenon of great human value. I for one have always looked out on the sea with awe and wonder, seeing it as an environment of a completely different order to terrestrial landscapes in the impermanence of it and in its vitality as living thing. Human beings have always been fascinated with the sea as both dangerous alien environment but also as possible route to far away and unknown places. The memory of my particular encounter with the sea on the RV Polarstern from Bremerhaven to Cape Town will continue to feed my imagination.

Here are a few sketches and photos from the 2016 cruise. More to come in future posts when I get time!

Drawing made on Nov 14, 2016, English Channel

Super moon sketched from the monkey island at 6 in the morning as we left the English Channel for the Atlantic ocean. Chinese ink and aquarelle pencil on paper.

'Super' moon painted on board ship based on sketches and memory, acrylic on canvas.
The painting was donated to the ship to mark a successful cruise in a ceremony on the bridge with Captain Wunderlich of Polarstern when we arrived safely in Cape Town, Dec 12th 2016. 

Me sketching the above drawing. Photo credit E. Shestakova

Drawing made on Nov 23, 2016, off east Africa


Nov 20 Sunrise 1 Canary Isles.

Nov 20 Sunrise 2 Canary Isles


The Atlantic

Sunset from the port side of bridge

Equator midday port side, so much light, aquarelle pencil

 View from the bridge top sunset

Prof. Peter Lemke discusses his idea about the ships' wake

Lionel Playford explains the idea behind the expedition mural to a group of scientists helping to create the 10m long painting

Here is what we created! Possibly the longest painting ever made at sea.


Finished mural laid out fore the first time in the wet room. 1.5m x 10m acrylic and collage on linen.







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