"Marking the Shadows of Passing Trains / 12:51-1:31pm 16.12.2023" Large Abstract Acrylic Painting by Simon Findlay

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Day 1 - Throwing paint with a broom.
Day 2 - Gestural lines with a long pole and then folding … Read more Day 1 - Throwing paint with a broom.
Day 2 - Gestural lines with a long pole and then folding it whilst it’s still wet.
Day 3 - Marking the shadows of passing trains.

Painted outside in 0'C.

Translating the awareness of time (time of day, time of year) via the specificness of shadows onto a physical medium. The Winter solstice occurred five days after this piece. For the most part, trains coming from either end are marked with the same brush, however this changes towards the end, becoming more non-selective with bucket choice.

There is a moment after you have painted for a whole day, when you stop and you look up at what you have done, and see that it is absolutely terrible. Terrible in form, in colour, in concept. Unappealing and inconsistent in almost every way. And in that moment, that is completely artistic freedom, for you know that having tried more than a dozen ways to slice and dice this piece, that you cannot fail more than where you are right now.
I experienced that with this work, it was what drove me to rip it off the wall whilst still wet and to fold it, transforming it in a way that was novel to myself.

This ongoing practice is focused on being in intense physical situations, as a way to engage with unconscious compositional processes and to remain more present throughout. See less