Grounding metaphysical expansion

 

The first painting of 2024. I don't know what to make of it, as usual. Mainly I'm just glad it's here.

I never wanted to have a style. As soon as something looks like it might be repeating itself to some kind of formula, I get uncomfortable. Lots of people seem to find 'the thing they do' and then go on repeating some version of it, probably for many different reasons, one of which might be that it's just a relief not to have to face an empty page every time and wonder what to do. I can also see how a narrowing down, focussing in upon a particular investigation is its own kind of exploration and delight.

For me though this begins to feel like creative atrophy. If it starts to happen I feel I'm no longer simply providing conditions for emergence; no longer creating a space to be surprised in.  I'm being tempted to stay with something not entirely unsatisfying, perhaps to give my nervous system a break from the feeling of constantly putting one foot out in front of me off the edge of my cliff.

Right now I don't want to worry about these long landscapes being in danger of becoming safe or repetitious. Is it just the repetition of a slightly unusual format? Perhaps I think  sameness is appearing because of this format, but that's surely only because it's non-standard; who complains about the sameness of the A size proportions of repeating landscape or portrait formats?

I like the long landscape format because it feels different and strange, and also because it stretches my plants and birds and artefacts potentially into some kind of narrative, though whatever story it might tell is private to the mind of the viewer. I like that compared to the space in the more conventional format, which for me can sometimes be almost overwhelming. Like in the image below.... I'm unnerved by the way this image bypasses space, time and gravity; it throws me into a metaphysical space beyond the normal dimensions/limits which I need to ground my experience and my imagination.

I shared a quote on fb recently about ancient Chinese painters seeing artists' studios as a 'places of applied philosophy'. This seems to be working itself out through me whether I want it to or not, so for now I'm going to stick with my mythical landscapes, not least because they're being pretty insistent. Like I've said before, I just take dictation.