Mixed media.

Here is a piece by an artist working out of Suffolk in the UK which raises some interesting questions about media - the means, the products, the vehicles an artist uses to compose their artwork. (It deserves wider appreciation too, but for the moment let's stick to media).

Helen Dougall, Landscape collage batik cotton collage with machine embroidery

Helen Dougall is a member of Artworks - a professional group of artists in East Anglia

https://artworksinfo.org.uk/

In this piece the artist has used a technique originating in oriental asia known as batik. Very simply put, portions of textile are painted with wax before being dyed. The wax resists the dye and the result is an intricately patterned fabric. The process can be repeated so that one pattern and colour overlays another.

The result can be subtle and complex. People often use the word 'texture' to describe the effect of batik.

In this piece, the artist has used this technique to bring to us images as varied as wintry trees, cultivated fields and a shoreline. Partly because of the batik, but also because of the way the artist has perceived this scene, what comes to our eye is a number of images, a number of blocs or layers of image which fit and sometimes jostle together.

Arguably, this is a more authentic of what we might encounter if we stood in front of the original scene. We wouldn't take in the landscape and seascape, the church and the trees and the fields as one composed whole. We would find ourselves drawn to particular snatches of image, which would resolve slowly (maybe) into an integrated whole - perhaps. in fact, many of us would remember just one or two components of the whole 'scene'. This is the experience which the artist re-presents to us here.

But the batik also offers the experience of texture. We usually think of texture as being conveyed through touch (please don't try this in most art galleries...). However, we know intuitively that we can 'see' texture too. We can 'see' if a surface is rough or smooth and so on, and this is what we have with this piece - even if it is almost impossible to convey through a photograph of the piece. I was able to have a brief conversation with the artist, and she spoke of how her choice of wax determined the kind of texture which was achieved. She told me that her preliminary sketches were made in the open-air, and that in her studio she decided which might be suited to the medium of batik. This ought to remind us that great art is almost never accidental, but is usually the result of years of developing skills and judgment, of hours in the studio wrestling with what might be.

Having been so analytical about this piece, I ought to say it was also very pleasing. For whatt it's worth, this is art I would love to have on my wall at home.

I receive no payment or other inducement for writing these posts. I choose work which interests me and which I think might interest my readers. At the same time I am grateful to working artists who let me use images of their work at no cost, and so I am pleased to tell you that Helen Dougall's work is for sale. You can find her at http://hdbatik.co.uk/

"... you can blame it on the apple .."

This is an exciting piece by artist Alex Parnham-Cope - an artist working out of Gloucestershire. Alex trained at Stroud College and this was part of his project - Objects of Revulsion - on attitudes towards the queer and female body. The painting measures 40cm x 60cm, oil on board, and is entitled queer bodies.

Alex offers us here the torso of a 'real' woman, yet one which has nevertheless been manipulated like so many other images of women. The torso is cut off from any background or context by a field of grey and yellow. The latter has also come forward in the picture plane, partly concealing and partly defining the female form.

A half apple has been placed over the torso's genitals.

This could simply be a metaphor for vagina and vulva (but why?), like the roses and wooded ravines of other western art. But it might also point to the story found in the early chapters of Genesis where Eve/Woman is held responsible for Sin and for Human separation from God. In this story Eve disobeys God by eating fruit (apples are never mentioned) which has been forbidden. She encourages Adam/Man to do the same. For this act of disobedience, they are both stripped of their innocence and become aware of their sexual identities. Eve/Woman is specifically punished by being made subservient to Men. From this myth has flowed a whole history of male oppression of women.

The Church has traditionally taken this further by suggesting that the forbidden fruit was sexual desire and action. Had it not been for Woman's disobedience, the original couple - it is argued - would have remained in a blissful state of virginal innocence. In this reading, both Women and Sex become sullied and corrupt - an example of the Church's sad power to be life-denying rather than life-affirming.

So perhaps this work brings to our minds the oppression and blaming of women. The most intimate part of this torso's body becomes an object to be covered, as though it is something of which to be ashamed. At that part of her anatomy, which is capable of bringing her and others pleasure and from which new life appears, is placed a symbol of accusation and damnation.

I had the opportunity to talk with Alex about his work. He spoke of his concerns about the ways in which women's bodies have been sexualised, and his intention to make them more familiar. And this is a good example of the (not always comfortable) relationship between the artist's intentions and how his/her work is perceived and received. It is helpful to know what the artist had in mind, but when the work leaves the studio it becomes the subject of many interpretations - each of those conditioned by what the viewer brings to the image. I can only read this picture as a white middle-aged man with a bit of art education. It would be fascinating to hear from women about how they engage with this thought-provoking image.

This artwork is for sale, and offers in the region of £60 can be sent to Alex on alex.parnhamcope@gmail.com

#woman #nude