The new body of work I’m making has the working title of New old forms, so it was heartening to discover there drawings I made on paper from when I was Sydney in 2012. They talk to the latest works quite nicely.

studies on various A4 gallery room sheets

Study on hardback envelope

Working on old hardback envelopes initial marks sit in the middle of the surface. Painting up to the edge, my awareness of how I’m making a mark/line and how it relates to the surface / object changes. I’m now very conscious of the edges, of the thing-ness / rectangle-ness of the surface and of how the line I’m making sits in relation to and is confined by the edge.

And then of course I push it too far and what was working is now failing and flailing and in need of rescue. But this change in perception when I’m aware of and engaging with the edge of the surface is intriguing. Bumping up to the edge a potentially infinite world become finite.

Work in progress

This time last week I was painting. Well, I say painting but If you saw what I was actually doing – reading, putting the laundry on, looking at Instagram, reading some more, getting distracted by the internet, snacking, painting, drawing on my phone, doing the washing up – well, there wasn’t so much painting going on.

That said, my time spent avoiding painting was well spent. Reading Amy Sillman’s writing and thinking more about my practice I had a mini breakthrough in understanding where I am with my work. I feel like I’m returning to a language I was once semi-fluent in. I know core words and certain phrases but am rusty. Right now I’m relearning some of those words and phrases and exploring how they string together.

I’m also remembering what it’s like to go over works and push them. In the above gif you’ll see I’ve started to work over a piece from several weeks ago. While it was close to a completed state it wasn’t working for me as a whole so I’ve started to push it. I feel there’s still a lot of work to go in to this one so it’s good to get it moving again.