Howard's Words

Here is an explanation of how to interpret Howard's Art, written by him
during his final year at Falmouth School of Art.

During my art studies I have become increasingly interested in mark making, and how little is necessary to convey an idea or feeling.

Looking at Turner's "Burning of the Houses of Parliament" 1834 you can see that Turner combines an intimate knowledge of drawing skill, with an endless search for his truth, which was always a quest for the qualities of light, to the point of being willing to lose the figurative image. It is from this standpoint that I have tried to understand the use of colour by looking also at the works of Matisse and Cezanne.

A depth of field can be found in their manipulation of form by using blocks of colour, In the case of Matisse and his early oriental influences colour and composition seem symbolically related. One of his examples of this is "Harmony in Red" - La Desserte" 1908, which uses abstraction carefully balanced against coordinated colour. This creates a pattern to which the composition moulds itself. The lines of the woman's figure are reflected in the design of the wallpaper and trees.
This questions the figurative aspects of seeing, seeing being the way of interpreting an artist's code, deciphering their visual language, and trying to understand the barriers of technique at their own time and their personal fears.

Another, and far more modern artist that I relate to is John Virtue, who seems to be facing the same challenges as the old masters. His continual reworking of his local landscape is reminiscent of Cezanne's obsession with Mont St. Victoire. Also, for me, he has a Turneresque approach to light, a kind of ghostly swirling which suggests organic images, but which can also occasionally reveal a figurative image. Nothing is clearly defined but there are many references tying the work to its local environment, John Virtue started organising small equally shaped drawings and came to an evolved conclusion about their whole, rather than individual, identity,
 

I have personally found this relationship with the real/unreal very stimulating to pursue, looking at the work of others to find clues to their direction, So in trying to create my own visual language, I have abstracted ideas in an effort to produce a depth of field.

 

Seacape

  

My concern is just how much information needs to be imparted. Picasso looked to primitive art, two eyes and an oval become man. That simple, of course not, even just weight of line without any tonal value, can give depth.

Life drawing, for me, has been a great way to pick up on these ideas of composition in a figurative way. In my landscapes I have tried to create space by layering, what is in front or behind. In this respect I find collage can create another space between the two dimensional surface and the observer. I have been using colour, warm, cold, and primary in an attempt to create both movement and depth. So far most forms of print have been very satisfying to me, in that the process is organised but the results can be spontaneous and slowly evolving. Now, mark making itself is my main concern, in creating my own visual language to give depth and spatial awareness. This I am doing currently through paint. In some ways the media is irrelevant. It is the journey, and an ever more analytical one to discover my own way of interpreting light and form.
 
 

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