One of the paintings up in the Spence cafe is called 'Then to the ming'. The title came from watching the Olympic games opening ceremony in Beijing in 2008 on television and somehow I found myself writing down many of the comments from the commentators describing the unravelling scenes of colour and movement.
But I started the work in 2002 and have worked on it intermittently since then. Looking back I'd been working in a furniture place that sold antique indian pieces and I remember being influenced by the character of a number of them at the time. Most of the photos of each stage come from the past two years.
I tried to upload them in order the bottom four are the wrong way round chronologically.
I ended up taking lots of photos because this painting got under my skin a bit and found myself in a few dilemmas in the decision making of the painting.
This one (above) is the first record of its development. taken (Aug 2002) I was (am) into building up the surface by painting on board fragments, where some have materials added to build up texture, including loosely woven fabric. When the process slowed down, I discovered by ripping the board fragments off revealed rough exposed areas of glue and paint combined unevenly to make a new shape and surface with which to work with again. I used small brushes to build up colour intensities in each area.
There is something beautifully extraneous about opening ceremonies in sports events, in many ways just like painting. No-one needs it but its nice to have one and its something nice to experience and look at.
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