Artist journal 13.03.22

Gustav Klimt painted his chickens in his spare time.

He also, under the influence of impressionism, change his painting style late into his career.  I’ve been thinking about Klimt’s chickens this week, and also why the thrush, that spends hours shrieking ‘jibbadeah’ three times and then a random selection of stolen notes is a song thrush whereas the robin that sings a perfectly lovely and coherent song is not a song robin. There’s Klimt, and the song thrush, and how wonderful it is to hang the laundry out to dry, amongst the skylarks,  the sheets billowing in the wind, the little bits of tissue falling on the lawn and mingling with plum blossom like the perfect crime.

When I’m not overjoyed by laundry or annoyed by the shrieking thrush (isn’t it lovely the birds have started singing again. Great tits and chaffinches get quite loud, don’t they?) I’ve been thinking about artists, and their styles this week, it partly due to a throw away comment  on twitter that Jim Moir was one of the most versatile artists, because he paints in many different styles. I follow and like Jim a lot, as it happens, but he gets to paint in various styles because he’s Vic Reeves, and Vic Reeves can do what he likes.

Other working artists don’t have that. Other working artists have a recognisable style, which serves a purpose; much like branding,their work is easily recognisable. There are other reasons; when I’m working on a project, I often get many ideas similar to that project for instance, I’d like to print these hares as ghosts, in the sky. Stylistically, it would look similar.

Having a visual language also means you can get ideas on paper quickly, which makes you a lot more efficient, if you are working on commissions, and give the client a good idea of what to expect.

We all learn by copying, we all learn many styles of art. It’s not something unalterable, that you are born with- one is not born an impressionist, or a graphic artist, like you are born a soprano, or 5’10, or with blue eyes. I’ve seen other artist  have various styles like Jim, but keep them separate from the main body of work, in their spare time or under an alias.

Working in with linocut automatically gave me a style, my colour palette enhances that, and the subjects I choose. Up until recently, my shop (if not my instagram, full of nonsense sketches) was fairly consistent. Expanding an experimenting with different printing styles has, in its turn, expanded and changed what my work looks like. Perhaps that’s why, in these very turbulent times, I seem to have returned, quite firmly, to cutting lino. It’s what I know best, soothing, and comforting, and I actually found myself thinking as I questioned why I wasn’t working on my etching experiments ‘yes, but this project I’m not supposed to be working on is coming along rather nicely’.

So, no etchings for you today, but the Easter hares are drying and will be in the shop next week, and there will be process videos on instagram.

I feel this lino (the project I’m not supposed to be working on) would have been a lot easier to cut if I had used a U gouge (which has a more consistent line) but that would mean ordering a smaller gouge which means trying to decipher the cryptic code of the pfeil lino cutter, a thing which I’m not sure I have mental capacity for. What I wouldn’t give for an art shop nearby where I could just pick out the one I needed. You can have fun guessing what this print is going to be.

Red kite update: the kites are nesting and I see them flying back and forth with twigs and bits, which delights me. Buzzard is also doing well and might be less sighted because he too, seems to have paired off. I haven’t seen the female kestrel yet but the male is alive and well and will hopefully breed again this yet too. Living amongst birds of prey is a delight and frankly I need more so they all need to have lots of babies.