Big Sky
Big Sky is a series of paintings based on cloud formations from the north Antrim coast of Northern Ireland. It combines several issues I wanted to look at in one subject matter. It all started from a conversation with a friend about abstract art, and how in the wider public and media realm it has been lampooned or disregarded. I wanted to try and re introduce the idea that abstract images are all around us and are accepted without a second thought.
A cloud is a pure form of that, no-boundaries, expressive, in the way it can convey menace dark -thunderous sky , romanticism -a red sky at night as the sun falls etc. Through to the way we played games as a child making images from the cloud structure.
The last thought stayed with me and I realised that people read their own expectations and involve their personality in the use of imagination. The cloud is something that we can all identify with so the subject matter was perfect.
I paint the clouds from a place called Bishops Point, which gives me a great panoramic view. I can zone in to an area of interest and capture the image the way I see it. Painting in a wet on wet style, the immediacy helps link with the ever evolving cloud.
The use of light and density in each of the paintings has its own qualities but link in a way that they appeal to people in different ways. I often ask what it is they can see in the cloud and stand back and listen to their imagination spring into life. What they are looking at is an abstract image far removed from the small dog they see in the cloud but it makes a connection without being too high brow and breaks down some of the barriers about what they are supposed to see.
I have also started to collectand paint images of clouds from other artists around the world who have kindly sent them to me. These paintings were included in The Big Sky exhibition held at the Flower field Arts centre Portstewart Northern Ireland in 2009
Looking up in the sky how many times have you made out the form of something familiar from a cloud?
