These presentations were created with the support of
Limerick City and County Council Arts Office
Art photography and animation by Declan Greene
(declan.greene@gmail.com)
My Gold
Each painting teaches me how to paint it, because it is impossible for me to already know.
There are various threads of thinking to explore in relationship to this work. A lifetime under the overcast skies of Ireland, the silver white light of the horizon line, the lead grey clouds above. The liquid presence of the rainwater, joining the earth to the sky.
The rich black soil in the shape of an ellipse, fringed with green and a hint of gold. Possibly a black pool, containing that which is unseen, below the threshold of consciousness. But which nourishes and makes possible creative leaps of the imagination.
Energy which can be repressed but should not be denied. Creativity on the threshold of consciousness. The transformation of repressed materials into new life.
The alchemical process as the work of a lifetime. A process unto itself and not an instant transformation.
Painting each day in the studio is my work, the alchemical heat of my own blood and excrement, keeping the Prima Materia simmering.
Time is always needed, and the desire and hunger, to get on with the work. The focus to follow the suggestions in the painting, as it mentors me, how to paint itself, into being.
Paint-works Display
‘Paint-works Display’, reminds me of Claude Monet’s painting, ‘Westminster Bridge and Houses of Parliament’, and I enjoy that echo.
Impressionist paintings are endlessly popular, and much maligned, as somehow culturally obsolete. But, for anyone, who knows anything about painting, Impressionism is a store of working knowledge. Do not let the banality of some of the images or overexposure, blind you to the visual sophistication.
I frequently marvel, at the ability of my unconscious, to realise the potential of a painting. It’s almost as if the paint, the spirit in the matter, and my unconscious, are in a conversation of their own. A dialogue, that the conscious half of my mind, is only let in on, towards the end.
It is a process, which can’t be rushed, and that is the important role that my consciousness fulfils. My conscious Self, guides and protects, the daily routine of the studio, which facilitates the work. Creating the structure, the bridge, for the connections to be made, and the paintings made manifest.
And there, in the painting, is a bridge, which goes almost unseen, beneath the spectacle and display of the paint. But like a firework show, the spectator doesn’t need to know, how the spectacle has come about, to enjoy the exuberance of the display.
Target Field
The impulse for this painting, are semi-abstract landscape images, in my sketchbooks. The high horizon line, being one particular feature.
The target element is new. It has never manifest before. It was an incongruous intuition, but it has remained, and now forms a dominant feature of this painting.
The target as an element, comes with its own associations. Jasper Johns’ Target paintings, from the 1950s, is one example. However, I doubt that Johns’ work, is particularly relevant. It’s more the fact that good painting, can’t help but create dialogues, with other paintings.
The painters of the past, keep on passing through the studio. It is in the nature of painting, and the way of language, that resonances occur.
The target compromises, the landscape logic of the painting. There is a question there, on how we are conditioned to see. Our default setting, to create a pictorial logic, to process and understand.
The rings create a focus, but they resist an easy assignment of function. The target creates an enigmatic presence, which refuses any narrative and yet, it is readily identifiable, for what it is.
The richness of the colour, comes almost as a relief; in the sensory sensuality of that, the viewer can more confidently, place their trust.
High Wire Act
I have always been fascinated, by the evocation of light in painting. The Impressionists, rendering the visual world, as a vibration of oscillating energies.
This painting, began as a collection of arbitrary marks. An image, slowly suggesting itself.
The cyan sky, inspired by the liquid blue, of a midsummer night. The spotlight illuminating a black rectangle. A monitor yet to be switched on perhaps?
Two grey poles, yet to be positioned correctly. Or perhaps, because of the rather nebulous looking nature, of the gold ground, that they are resting on, stretching the line tight will not be possible? It is challenging to know, where the true nature of the images lies, and this is its wonder.
Van Morrison asks, in one of his songs, ‘Whatever happened to our sense of wonder?’ It got lost in an adult ‘need’, to arrive at an answer, as quickly as possible. This closes down the space for wonder.
We are programmed for reactive consumption, and not consideration.
A painting cannot be consumed. A painting changes as the viewer changes, and yet remains itself, resistant to, conscious concepts of knowing, and any attempt to corral its energy.
Some things just can’t be tamed, can’t be known. This painting invites the viewer to embrace their sense of wonder.
Gustave’s Grotto
Gustave Moreau, is one of those painters, who occupies a special place, in my imaginative landscape.
He is a mentor of sorts, as Moreau created his own idiosyncratic path, in contradiction to early successes, which could have seen him follow a more traditionally public and financially lucrative career.
This painting, is inspired by various pages in my sketchbooks, where initially, I am just using up excess acrylic paint, dragging it across the page with a palette knife, letting the paint accrue where it will.
Usually, there is light, coming from the right, darkening tonally to the left. The suggestion of an interior space, and in this painting, the idea of a grotto suggested itself.
A grotto is often a manmade structure, which echoes natural forms, and is usually created with a purpose in mind.
A metaphor perhaps, for how we use the natural proclivities of our own minds, to develop abilities, with which to contain, the different imaginative, and emotional needs of our daily lives. Although in this case, the pink X would seem to indicate that entry maybe denied?
Of all the 9 works, in this series, Gustave’s Grotto, is probably the most straightforward manifestation, of the romance I have with paint, as a physical, sensual substance, and a catalyst for imaginative space.
Porthole
This painting, has elements in common with a previous work, made 20 years ago. Some ideas keep on suggesting themselves, and eventual find a physical articulation.
In painting, time works differently. Painting has an atemporal nature. A quality of permanence, in an ever-changing world.
I couldn’t say, what this painting is about, in any definite way. However, I do know, that it is about connections and changes, and probably some form of, or attempt at containment.
It is a difficult painting in that, it asks more questions than it answers.
One such question being, is the circular space, static or expanding? And what kind of space is being represented?
There is obviously a red layer, which the circle is an opening in. Then there is an above, and a below, and a deep blue background, of indeterminate depth.
There is something about this painting, which suggests, that the viewer, is being encouraged to become comfortable with, or even to enjoy, not knowing. That there is a richness to mystery, which also nourishes our minds.
Although, it may take time and consideration, to learn how to be comfortable with not knowing, and eventually, to embrace it as a dimension of the working mind.
Wild Things
Texas Radio and the Big Beat goes ‘The natives in the forest brightly feathered / They are saying, forget the night / Live with us in forests of azure / Out here on the perimeter there are no stars / Out here we is stoned – immaculate’.
Lyrics I first heard a long time ago, which continue to resonate in my imaginative landscape.
In this painting, the wild things are stick figures, in a golden cage, suspended in the trees. A tree-house of sorts, whose light illuminates the forest around it. A forest, which is not without its dangers, as shards of an evening blue hue, seem to be encroaching, on the golden cage.
Perhaps it’s not a cage? But a repurposed articulated container, where different, but complimentary minds, can create a world of their own making.
A world where every gesture has meaning. A Dionysian delight in being, literally dancing wildly for the joy of it.
Creative energy needs to be released. It craves articulation, in my case, in paint, and it will not rest, until release has been achieved.
The electricity of the energy, literally creates light in the painting, illuminating a space for desire’s imagination, to be made manifest.
Cascade of Light
An image, created by a collection of semi-conscious gestures, and an experiment with spray cans on paper, not initially intended for any purpose.
In this work, there is a play on the idea of a painting as a window. Each time, I look at this piece, I half expect there to be, a potted plant on a window ledge, and I consider whether this, is a suggestion I should act upon?
But there is a different energy, to a suggestion, which should be enacted. And as I get older, I am more attuned to, which intuitions to follow.
Not that there is any real loss, painting for me now, is more akin to Jackson Pollock’s, ‘easy give and take’. Paying attention to what is going on, and listening to the painting, rather than dictating a more conscious intent.
It is easy to make a successful painting, to do what you already know works. It is a lot more difficult to surprise yourself.
There is an aspect of control to this work also. A consideration of energies, and how they can best be framed, to get the most from them.
That sense, is particularly present, in the dialogue between the crimson red and the translucent black. A line of orange added, to suggest light striking the red, creating a visual counterpoint to the cascade of light.
The Lightening Conductor’s Tower,
The Lightening Conductor’s Tower, started off life, as a daytime scene. An orange tower, buzzing nicely against a mottled grey background. Then came the blue streak of lightening, a less ordered gesture, to challenge the geometry. The lightening conductor, on the top of the tower, has since become immersed in the night. Like all good wizards, he is secondary to the main event.
The blue lightening, is now a combination of fire and water. A conduit of contradictory elements, made compatible in paint.
In painting, echoes of the alchemical tradition, continue to reverberate. The transformation of base materials, into something of greater value, and psychological significance.
Provoking a question, what is the function of a painting, in an environment, already saturated with images?
There is the role of the monetised decorative object, and business to be done, but so many other objects, also fulfil that role.
What ‘The Lightening Conductor’s Tower’ calls attention to, is a need for the irrational, to create a space for that.
The child’s imagination, so precious, which is then, systematically stultified, by decades of, institutional education. Something which everyone knows, but are powerless to counteract.
However, the lightening conductor on his tower, manifests just such, an imaginative transgression.
These presentations were created with the support of
Limerick City and County Council Arts Office
Art photography and animation by Declan Greene
(declan.greene@gmail.com)