Begin with nature

When over-zealous disciples asked Buddhist or Christian teachers on what they should meditate, they were invariably told: begin with nature.

Many artists do the same, and Jo Dowers is amongst them. Her starting point is often downland or coastal scenery, and they appear in her work. But sometimes she allows herself to remain with single wildflowers and sees where her brush takes her.

This is what we have here in this serene painting. It's true that Jo's palette of blues and violets lends a sense of peacefulness, but there is more besides.

When I first saw this piece, I wasn't quite sure what I was seeing. It was as though different aspects drifted in and out of focus. As always, part of my brain wanted to see clouds or mists, and that would be just fine. But again, I feel that there is more.

The painting is made up of layers. Some are printed (oh dear, that makes it sound so simple ... there is a complexity to the printwork here) while some are washes of colour. It gives this deceptively straightforward painting depth. And layers speak to each other. They blend into each other, define each other and sometimes resist each other. In this painting, they also gently strip away some of the illusion. They give us an awareness of the making of this piece - the bringing together of different elements to create a whole.

I talked with Jo about her work. She told me how, while she is working, there is a kind of dialogue taking place between herself and the paint. The materials aren't conscious of course; they're not sentient beings. And yet, I think that Jo was describing that process where the inner being of the artist works with the medium. Training, technique and practice are all important, but so is what we might call the soul of the artist.

After our conversation, I began to see a new aspect to this small painting. It was as though the images of the flowers arose out of the paint. This is beautiful work to spend time with.

Jo Dowers exhibits at the Montague Gallery in Worthing, and you can find more of her work on Instagram jodowers.

Post Scriptum

Jo recently posted this painting on Instagram. It shares many qualities with the one above, but there is also an exciting sense of movement here:

making an impact

Paint is wonderful stuff.

It covers and colours and reveals. It piles up in ridges and smooths itself on surfaces. It folds like liquid and makes itself obvious. It blends, combines and it disappears.

Paint seldom sets out to deceive; what you see is what you get. But it does allow itself to be transformed. And what paint is able to achieve is quite beyond words.

Here is a compelling painting by Alison Tyldesley which revels in paint.

Stony Beach and Turquoise Sea, 76cmx76cm, oil on deep canvas

I love the colour in this work; I love the impact it makes on my mind.

This is the kind of image which catches attention.

This is a dynamic painting. Paint is piled on to the canvas in layers: the blues, and greens, and yellows, and pinks, moulded,shaped and spread in exciting ways. It's a painting which makes you want to look.

But it also extends an invitation. We are offered no less than an opportunity to co-create. With very little effort, we can 'see' shorelines and skylines in this painting. Alison has provided us with cues to construct a whole landscape. Yet this is far more than a picture of a place, presented in a hazy kind of way; that is not (it seems to me) what the painting is about. That mental landscape we made has a purpose. It provides us with a context, a stage on which something else takes place.

I expect that many people's attention is drawn quickly to the patch of bright pink roughly mid-canvas. It quickly becomes a focal point. Everything else seems to be there to make that brightness possible.

When I talked with Alison she mentioned the part which memory plays in her work. Memory is a fertile and creative space. Without realising we are doing it, we re/construct our memories so that they hold and frame what is most important for us. It seems to me that Alison has done that here. Her painting invites us to do the same: to create a framework within which something else is discovered.

And what might that patch of brightness signify for us?

Return to the image.

A burst of light? A distant promise or hope?

And how does our inner being respond to it?

Someone I know said that she feels she could walk into Alison's paintings.

Wittingly or not, I think that's what Alison invites us to do.

See more of her work here: http://alison-tyldesley.co.uk/

Let me show you

(low resolution image taken on phone camera)

This beautiful painting is by Janet Branscombe.

I love paint. I love its texture and its smell and its strange power. And you get some gorgeous paint with this canvas. But I have to confess that it caused me a bit of a struggle. The vibrant colours and the tactile nature of the paint were immediately attractive. The white space was as refreshing as when you find it on a page of text – as eloquent as any of the other space.

But it was the lines. I had seen some of Janet’s figurative work – closely observed, with expressive and confident use of line – and that didn’t seem to be what I was seeing here. It unsettled me. At first the lines seemed tentative, a little uncertain.

I’ve written elsewhere on Loving Art about the benefits of talking with artists. Janet speaks with obvious passion about the act of seeing: about how our vision is led from one field to another, one movement to another. She talked with me about how she wanted to express that following of our attention in her work. The lines not only represent that movement; they function as route markers too.

We’ve said before how the best art puts us in mind of experience and presence, and does it in ways that words could never express. That is what we have here.

Not everyone will have my earlier struggle. Having worked through it, I was able to embrace this whole canvas as a joyful, dynamic work which does indeed take you on a journey. We have an artwork here which gives obvious pleasure, and reveals even more over time.

Get to see more of Janet’s work if you can.

http://www.janetbranscombe.co.uk/art.html