Overlooking The Game

Driving through Utah was honestly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The unique visuals I was discovering every day, seemingly around every corner had artwork ideas ricocheting around in my mind like a bullet fired in a small circular metal room. 

There was one particular corner we drove around where this arresting landscape with a distant crack in the ground appeared before me.  Instantly I hit the brakes, compelled to pull over.  We took dozens of photos and this was the one that got me. 

The distant mountains in this piece, as amazing as they are, didn’t appeal. I wanted a little more character in the background, so I chose this section taken from the highway, which has subsequently been used in a couple of my pieces. 

For some reason, whenever I look at flat large expanses of ground, I always project checkers onto it in my mind.  I cannot explain why this occurs, or why it appeals to me, but it is something that has happened, automatically, for years.

In addition to this, I often imagine oversized objects, deep crevices, and many other things overlaid on what is before me.  This landscape appeared to me as a gift, and I accepted it. 

I liked the idea of sitting up high, overlooking the game of life, much like arriving at the rugby field early in the morning on game day. That moment of peace before the mayhem begins.  A similar feeling to standing on stage in the Vogue Theatre, the doors still locked and the entire building empty before a big live art show. The eerie silence, the calm, the contemplative bubble, is a place where I thrive. I want to strategize, visualize and be ready for what is about to begin with every possible outcome thought through before it happens. 

So as I begin the piece, my goal is to figure out the tone. How light is the background compared to the foreground?  The checkerboard provides that; as well as being something I love, it is also a tool for measuring tone right through the middle of the piece. 

As I pull the foreground together, the battle between the tones of the foreground rocks against the checkerboard begins. This battle continued right until the very last hour of the painting process. 

One of my favourite discoveries in this piece was the fading checkers at the periphery, designed to pull focus into the middle of the board. Going into the piece I had no idea how I was going to make this happen, and in the process I discovered a visual technique that I feel will benefit me for many years to come. 

This is the final image. 

You’ll notice from the previous photo that the rocks in the foreground and the closest checkers have been altered ever so slightly, but just enough to help your eye travel through the piece comfortably. 

Looking back at this piece, I am happy. I feel I used every bit of knowledge and skill I possess to produce the best possible piece I could. I would even go as far as saying that this is my best piece so far. This is something every artist should strive for. 

To make every piece better than their last.

If you are still reading…thank you. As much as this piece represents me, it should also represent you, for we all, in our way, sit and contemplate our every move, whether that is one move ahead or ten.  

For me, I am engaged in a constant battle in my mind.  If I knew I was right, I would have a large ego, which blinds us.  Yet if I thought I was never right, I would suffer a dangerous lack of confidence or ego.  Being in the middle is always the toughest place to be, and it reminds me of one of my favourite quotes of all time. 

‘The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize’.

-        Robert Hughes

Cheers,

William