Peter Doig: Hayward Project Space 5th October 2007

Recent work

Recent work

Recent work September 26th 2007

The Symptom

Painting the symptom. The symptom is the portal to feeling and better understanding. Sanitizing the symptom is not dealing with the symptom. Strange relief in going directly at the symptom. There then appears to be balance. The horizontal axis is viable (rather than anything above or under 45 degrees).

Collage painting

Hard Work...getting there...

Alex Itin

Watch this:

http://www.futureofthebook.org/itinplace/archives/2007/08/what_the_dead_told_me.html#respond

Four colours.

John Berger

"How does a painter work in the dark? He has to submit. Often he had to turn around in circles instead of advancing. He prays for collaboration from somewhere else...He builds a shelter from which to make forays so as to discover the lie of the land. And all this he does with pigment, brush strokes, rags, a knife, his fingers. The process is highly tactile. Yet what he is hoping to touch is not normally tangible. This is the only real mystery. This is why some-like you-become painters."

John Berger. The Shape of a pocket. 2001

labour

so patient with this one, then suddenly...

women

Like the colours of this work. interested in doing a series of my friends but setting people up in a photoshoot. Hellen van Meene sets up some interesting scenarios. The lighter colours are more indicative of the mood. Thinking of trying to work even more subtle colours together. The woman disappearing...

Portrait

Not a good or bad day: no opinion, no critic.

The disappearance of self. A long time is short. A successful day is a successful piece of work, although I am learning to not engage in the emotional process too much. It isn't about me, it is about what comes through me. Thus, there is nothing to think about. It is everything to be sat at the desk painting. Then leave, go out, be a person and come back later for more. There is no beginning, ending, good, bad; there is only painting.
The critic is a trapped spectator. Always wanting to be on the inside, always trapped on the outside.

Will

Enjoying the process. Finding that I am enjoying the preoccupation with paint and not the yearning to be/say something. The desire to get away from the object. Process has to be the reason and even then it surpasses reason in this way. The kindness of knowing when to leave something alone (myself?). A consideration of what development is and how this takes time, a period not defined by my will. It teaches me to take my time with a space that is right but that can only be defined by application and the perception to pick up on what seems to be the right direction.

Pathos

Reminding oneself to take risks, not rely on what you think you know. Both getting lost and keeping on locating yourself. Making a mess but being tidy in process. Keen now to get on with this and enjoy the process more. I think that the portrayal of a scene is particularly easy because the involvement of the painter is only perfunctory. To get involved in the painting it almost has to be a painting of a painting or else the paint is decorative. The paint has to dictate the image. This implies a humility, interest in and of its self, and the openess to non-prescribed activity. The boundaries of how I am going about it are defined but not decided. I am finding out. The necessary self-discipline to go into it fully. Stepping away from that which is easy and representational. Moving away from the making of marks to confirm ones existence, rather the making of marks to explore ones existence. I don't need to keep reminding myself I am here! Beauty in that which is ugly, which stops a thing being anything; non-defined. Representing the non-physical in pure physicality. So maybe it is about saying everything without the signifiers, the confidence to not have to tell a story?

Not sure about colours. Naturally revisiting work without ruining it. Interested in both responding to what is seen and what appears through given time. It is difficult to know and sometimes am too grumpy which creates a wall. Probably need to keep taking risks even at the expense of the work. There is too much of the mediocre for fear of obliteration. Better to risk losing than to settle for less. There is a natural limit, better visited on different occasions with some natural trepidation. Letting things alone, but still paying them attention. Time to think is undervalued. Mad activity as if the end of the world is tomorrow. Taking time to experience process without fear of faliure. Sometimes things just don't work out; the need to understand this is important as to obliterate agendas. Learning to allow discomfort, the invisibility and demands of the self, intuition and time for development.

Keep out: Bullshitters

The smile should franchised under the subheading, "bullshitter". Bored of people who lie about their innocent stealing because they are frightened of themselves (finding something out).

The unseen.

Enjoying making a series at the moment. Loose work. Working primarily from found images. It is cathartic and the work is really interesting. No particular perameters that I am paying attention to. Something struck me, making this one, in relation to using paint. It can become stuck trying to become an intention. The need to bring it back, scrape it off, re-work regarding all of my intentions and at the same time, none of them. No perception of where I am heading but stopping when it feels like I have got there. Targets are simple: to paint a picture in a sitting. Gives it urgency and stops the changing of a mind related to a different day and time (everything is different tomorrow). It must all relate to the now, however flimsy or opaque.
There is a need to disregard the last painting. You fall out of love with it, but the mistake is to think you can revive this lost love by re-application. Too many a ruined work...

Progress

(burning) Bush administration

Cowpokes

Nine Items or fewer

Supermarket checkout. 13 items in the basket. Old man in queue; "I don't mind but when did people stop conforming?"

un-deny-able

Painting away from the end. Endings catch up today. Don't want the beginning either.

Enjoyment