Fowle Hall Features is an arts event set in a small Kent orchard near Paddock Wood. It has run for 3 years now and is organised by a group of London based artists bringing their creativity in its various forms to a rural audience.

This year they brought a number of Kent based artists into the mix to give it more of a local flavour. The aim of the event is to create a culture that values the space and time where artists can share openly and make new connections.

Within the show there were a variety of themes and common threads between the visual artists; broadly speaking an interest in different aspects of spirituality (or identity) which seemed to act as a gelling agent between everyone involved –  including the musicians, poets and visitors during the preview evening.  

As we discussed our work during the organised critiques, I noticed recurring themes emerged as driving concerns behind our work, such as personal narrative, memory (collective and personal) memorial and honour, loss and renewal. I found this to be enriching; especially to learn from artists working in different mediums from myself, where there was a confluence of ideas as well as a diversity of approaches. I think the success was in the combination of sensitive selection by the organisers and the already existing friendships which were being nurtured.

What impacted me the most in terms of the progression of my own work was the idea of honour which was apparent in a couple of the artists work, for example:

Kent based artist Niki Campbell built an installation consisting of plaster cast mangos adorned with photographs of her mother who lived in India before coming to settle in the UK in the 60s. The mangos were placed under an apple tree which took on dual functionality; a surrogate for the mango tree in her Mother’s Indian garden and a memorial to her Mother’s dream of the rural-Idyll lifestyle envisaged for the future before her arrival in England. London life turned out differently.

FHF III pictures are here:

www.accidentandemergence.phanfare.com

Artists’ websites:

www.niki-campbell.co.uk

http://www.lc-art.co.uk/

http://www.re-title.com/artists/reem-shaheen.asp

http://www.sophiaplease.co.uk/

http://elliehowitt.com/

Copyright © 2009 Jonathan Bentall

1. Describe your creative process in relation to the following four headings:

Question Connect Imagine Reflect

I view my creative approach as an enquiry of the five senses. There is the Question of looking which when translated to the issue of re-presentation brings up questions such as: What can be included or excluded? What is essential or peripheral? The answers to these questions will involve questions pertaining to the other senses. For example, touch; how does the paint feel in my hands or between my toes? Another question might be: What would happen if I limited one of the senses? Lately I have been painting through limited visual stimuli. This has resulted in bringing other senses to the fore, like hearing, in the creation of a work. Instead of looking at nature, I can hear it through the window and this feeds into the creative process.

Generally my practice builds on smaller questions which are thrown up along the path as I begin a particular work or project.

The need to Connect and re-connect is an ongoing issue. My current work is about issues of spirituality in art and I experience this as a form of connectedness; a passionate engagement with the creative process which I relate to the concept of ‘flow’.

The flow is temporal, so I am concerned about finding ways to re-establish the lost connection. I am also concerned about connecting to the viewer of my art since the receiving of the work is pivotal in consolidating its meaning and value. My creative process is therefore a shared experience. I look for ways to connect with other artists, or creatives in other disciplines, share ideas and allow this connectedness to inform my processes. Out of this comes a rootedness to life in relationship; this locates my work in a collective sense.

I recognise that to Imagine is to draw upon memory and therefore remembrance. This relates to my personal narrative which evolves through the guidance of my imagination.

I am specific and intentional about the role of my imagination as a vehicle to positive outcomes; the freedom to imagine creatively locates the past with the future and reconciles the two with hope. This is the sustainable basis of my practice. I see an enlivened imagination as the evidence of a heart at rest with itself, when permission has been given to be oneself. I always hold before me the thought that the fruit of my imagination is born from my attitude. In this way my best ideas stem from my attitude which then steers my imagination to a productive place of idea formation. These ideas are the result of working through questions like: How could my learning environment have been adapted to my learning needs as a child?

I Reflect after a creative session as a means to evaluate outcomes and the process that lead to them. The reflective process is a significant part of the creative cycle and I spend a lot of time there.

I will try to piece together the particular nature of what was done in order to see the context more clearly and place the work produced within a mental framework. This may not always lead to definitive awareness, but usually the act of reflection positions the experience and artwork within the framework of a discernable statement and results in the right title for the work. When that happens I will always believe in the authenticity of the title as a reflection of the creative process. The reflective stage usually helps me to clarify further goals to move forward.

2. What currently inspires you to create?

I work with mixed media (acrylic, oil, pastel, charcoal, ink and pencil) on hardboard, canvas and paper to encourage a varied and dynamic material process.

I am currently inspired by the idea of the invisible, inner core of a painting sought in the tradition of the mystics leaning toward the lyrical or poetic.  Signposts along the way are usually marked by a combination of formal integrity and suggested narrative. The latter might be a spiritual idea, a personal history, a remembered poem, story, rhyme or an imagined place which then consolidates the work as meaningful:

Execution =Work = Concept

Instead of:

Concept = Execution =Work.  (I might try this way at some point.)

Copyright © 2009 Jonathan Bentall

Since my last post I have been working on a series of four paintings, which were originally one large performance painting (1.8 metres x 6.5 metres) subsequently divided into four separate sections.

The experience of photographing the original material outside (see last post) and observing the sunlight against the marks already made on the canvas had an impact on my artistic decisions and processes; I wanted to retain a sense of life and reality inhabiting the creative process. So I began to develop a more physical way of working on the floor using my body across the surface, sometimes drawing into it, using a roller, applying paint with hands and feet and pouring on large amounts of water – checking periodically that no water was leaking through the ceiling to the floor below. This method emerged from the larger scale I was using now, and it contained a sense of continuity from the bodily movement of the live performance.

work in progress

The canvas was not stretched, and I placed objects underneath it to create mounds and undulations through which the water and paint could find its natural course, carve outs its own territory and leave its own impression on the emerging landscape.

I worked on the four separately until finished in no particular order. The choice of colours for each section was selected spontaneously and through contemplation of the marks already laid down during the initial performance.  Here are the results:

Mixed media (acrylic, ink, charcoal, pastel) 180 cm x 178cm

Mixed media (acrylic, ink, charcoal, pastel) 180 cm x 160cm

Mixed media (acrylic, ink, charcoal, pastel) 180 cm x 148cm

Mixed media (acrylic, ink, charcoal, pastel) 180 cm x 159cm

No consideration was given to the four as one during the process; lack of space being one reason. With this in mind it is interesting that the underlying structure from the original performance has had some influence on colour relationships, helping to unite the final four as one. I only saw this when they were digitally re-united in the same order as the original piece:

Mixed media (acrylic, ink, charcoal, pastel) 1.8 m x 6.5 m

Please let me know what words come to your mind when you look at this series of paintings. This feedback will be fed back into further work………

Copyright © 2008 Jonathan Bentall

Posted in art, Painting Tagged: art, body, colour, landscape, large, movement, painting, visual ]]> http://bentallart.wordpress.com/2008/12/30/name-my-paintings/feed/ 0 bentallart furnace-work-1 furnace-work furnace-1 furnace-2 furnace-3 furnance-4 furnace-final1 http://bentallart.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/furnace/ http://bentallart.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/furnace/#comments Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:59:24 +0000 Jonathan Bentall http://bentallart.wordpress.com/?p=43 ]]>

Earlier this year I did a live painting performance at the Furnace (see March blog) This was a venture into collaborative work with some musicians and the energy of an audience. The experience was about the process of working in that scenario, not the end product as a work of art.

Last Sunday I collected the canvas from where it was being stored with the idea to re-visit what was initiated through the performance concept; to invade perceptually that physical field of marks and memories, and push it further.

The heart of the Furnace community is a space for collaborative exploration across disciplines; where art forms can converse to create new experiences of engagement. Not just art forms in a formal sense, although that is a vehicle, but essentially an interchange of creative spirit, of human sharing. That is my experience of it,  and I’d like to be able to do justice to that vision whilst having taken the canvas away from the epicentre for quiet reflection and further work. My motivation for this is that community and solitude are part of a wider whole both feeding and enriching each other. We need both. I’d like to marinate the experience in some silent after-party reflection.

So I placed the canvas in the garden to see the effect of its shape on the landscape.

and I noticed the natural light upon the surface colours.

I liked the thought of painting with natural light on acrylic on canvas which began to add a new dimension to marks already made.

I sensed the marks forming their own landscape in tune with the surroundings

I then divided the canvas into four parts…

This subsequent cropping has yielded some compositional possibilites from the original free flow of marks.

Next I will live with them for a while and consider where to go from here.

Here are a few photo impressions which spoke to me of the relationship of art to life; finding beauty incidentally in passing moments, emerging by accident, in the working day,

or in the quiet place of contemplation.

I’ve been looking for it (art) in the in between spaces of living.

Something about the meticulous organisation of my parents fascinates me: My Mother got a book by Trinny and Susannah and we spent an hour or so doing the exercise to establish my colour range; everything incompatible with my skin tones subsequently went to charity, and a few items were tidily arranged on the kitchen floor as a working model.

I noticed my Dad’s careful arrangement of logs separating his garden from the golfers. There’s something about cutting up logs and arranging them in the right order; attention to detail and preparation for winter.

After photographing the logs I caught my own shadow by accident.

I enjoyed the spectacle of the Kathakali dancers before the play began; the preparatory process of dressing up and carefully applying all the makeup was integral to the whole experience of those watching.

I was out with my friends in their boat the other day. The sea rests my soul for some reason. The sun, sky and sails spoke to me so I snapped it with my mobile.

When the evening came everything was still.

I said ‘we’d be hard pressed to find somewhere else so remote and so close to home.’

Later the water to the side of the boat was sparkling (not moonlight) but alive with bioluminescent organisms (although it was a mystery to us at the time.) Any agitation of the water resulted in shimmering ripples of extraordinary beauty. We took a bucketful and the magic glitter slopped up the sides every time the bucket was stirred. Shame it didn’t come out on camera.

http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/

Recently I was asked to take part in an arts evening with The Furnace www.thefurnaceuk.com at The George in Balham, London organised by a group of people exploring collaborative enterprise between different art forms. I was asked to do a live painting performance as a spontaneous response to the music of the Lee Mitchell band. http://www.myspace.com/whoisleemitchell They were the main act for the evening. The invitation came on a Saturday morning for the event that Wednesday night.

Over the last year I’ve built up a body of work in silence and meditative solitude, overworking and re-working, abandoning and embracing over an extended time scale. Although daunting to change the pace and environment so drastically, I realised this was a great opportunity to unleash some of that creative build up at a specific moment in time surrounded by a specific community of people. It had to be about that moment in time, irreducible and unrepeatable; a conversation between a painter, an audience, some musicians and a canvas (2 metres high x 6.5 metres long.)

Not having ever painted anything that big before I was concerned just to cover the thing, hoping that the acrylic paint would flow freely across it. The staff at Bird and Davis were extremely helpful in advising what materials I’d need and how much. Once all the technical issues were sorted out my nerves evaporated into peaceful calm, and on the actual day I was able to really enjoy all the other acts before me. The only thing that kept bugging me was what I would paint. Every time I came up with an idea I had to let it go, sensing that it would impose itself on the unplanned moment and wreck the phenomenology of it all.

Someone said ‘just make sure you paint from your head to your feet.’ I thought ‘once the music starts I’ll let my body do the talking’ and that’s how it happened. The musicians started out in mellow tones and I started with broad sweeps of blue and then green. Gradually the pace of the music picked up and I began to introduce warm oranges, pinks and yellows.

Later it culminated in red, black and white.

I became quite ecstatic at points during those 25 minutes, especially when I started splashing pink onto the green hills and swiping black figures into the surface in the final few minutes. I was really intrigued by peoples’ comments afterwards, especially those where their experience paralleled mine at those points of heightened intensity; a truly shared dynamic.

I’m interested in the dance expressed in paint. I painted a small picture called ‘Dance’ (gallery 1 on my website) which depicts a joyful ecstasy of bodily movement. Other paintings also approach human interaction through ritual/ceremony/dance. I want to re-visit that subject, but have wondered how it might be achieved figuratively.

During the event as I drew from the music and the audience and allowed my body to respond to the immediacy of the moment, I sensed that I was actually becoming in reality, the subject I had wanted to depict in paint; quite a liberating feeling. The next day I ached.

What emerged was a kind of landscape with figures dotted across it and in the middle a huge all Seeing Eye.

Above is a drawing I did (or my sister did) when we were small – these tickets enable the bearer to go anywhere and do anything. Fortunately they have come to light again.

Here I’ll be recording the artistic activities and projects that I’ll be involved in, as well as any insights and thoughts I might have along the way. By jotting it all down I aim to keep myself ‘falling forwards’.

I studied at Newcastle University, UK graduating in 1997 with a Fine Art degree. My work at that time was created by observing theatrical performers. I sketched all the students rehearsing at the other University (which had/has a strong drama department.) Later I would develop these impressions into compositions which explored elements of the human condition represented by ‘types’ caught in the interplay between spiritual and material realities.

I’ve been working in different fields outside of artistic practice since then, so it’s an exciting leap to return on a second wind. I have just read an inspiring book called Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, 1993 which talks about creativity in the face of different kinds of obstacles, reconciling oneself to them and continuing to create.

Recently I have been working on the theme of solitude as a needed counterpart to community; a way to re-familiarise myself with the personal and material process of making art. By solitude I mean its role as a discipline and its rejuvenating effects in slowing down time.

My experience of solitude as a spiritual discipline involves moments of still contemplation prior to and during painting. This is centring myself. There is a play between meditative deliberation and decision making. During the painting process itself I have used no pre-gathered visual source material. Instead I have been interested in the role of the imagination in its relation to visual memory and spontaneity; similar to my own experience of musical creativity. It’s a process that embraces personal permission giving toward play and abstract experimentation. This latest work on my website is arranged in chronological order to show the progression of style over the course of last year.

I’m looking to join a London based group of artists for further development. Please get in touch if you have any suggestions.

www.jonathanbentall.com

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