Carolyn Blake
www.carolynblake.com
@carolynblake
Statement:
These two paintings are from The Unchanging Traveller series, begun in 2019 and ongoing... As a passenger I am contained within a non-space with a view through a train window. In this instance the subject for these paintings is an old water tank, a relic from the steam age, set back but standing proud in Network rail land beside Rugby Station. For me the fascination is the contrast of the manmade placed and standing stoically within the wild foliage of the natural landscape.
Passing at speed and recalling in a split second, I have become the neutral observer, allowing a momentary glance to be suspended. Within a split second the recognition of something and the action of recording takes place and the unremarkable is given a presence.
I record the non-event in the everyday, bringing to life the inconsequential and non-memorable. What is glimpsed as a snapshot, be it a colour, a shape or a structure, is recalled in a split second and becomes suspended in time.
I record with my IPhone for ease of access. I work with a coloured ground of pastel orange as my reference to memory. It has stayed with me since a coach journey to Cologne in 2008 travelling through the countryside and towns on dark November days. My preferred medium is oil, used wet in wet, applied and wiped away to maintain a freshness in the mark making and my palette is generally minimal.
www.carolynblake.com
@carolynblake
Statement:
These two paintings are from The Unchanging Traveller series, begun in 2019 and ongoing... As a passenger I am contained within a non-space with a view through a train window. In this instance the subject for these paintings is an old water tank, a relic from the steam age, set back but standing proud in Network rail land beside Rugby Station. For me the fascination is the contrast of the manmade placed and standing stoically within the wild foliage of the natural landscape.
Passing at speed and recalling in a split second, I have become the neutral observer, allowing a momentary glance to be suspended. Within a split second the recognition of something and the action of recording takes place and the unremarkable is given a presence.
I record the non-event in the everyday, bringing to life the inconsequential and non-memorable. What is glimpsed as a snapshot, be it a colour, a shape or a structure, is recalled in a split second and becomes suspended in time.
I record with my IPhone for ease of access. I work with a coloured ground of pastel orange as my reference to memory. It has stayed with me since a coach journey to Cologne in 2008 travelling through the countryside and towns on dark November days. My preferred medium is oil, used wet in wet, applied and wiped away to maintain a freshness in the mark making and my palette is generally minimal.