Abstract painting 101: ⟡THE⟡ documentary to watch (+ one of my fave artists ever)

‘In Conversation #2’ is one half of dynamic painting duo ‘In Conversation’ (see #1 here) – a pair of paint sketches I created in response to watching documentary ‘Six Days in September’ with legendary abstract expressionist painter John Hoyland.

In the doc, John invites a camera crew into his studio as he creates a painting over the course of – you guessed it – six days. I was hooked immediately by Hoyland’s humility, sense of humour and his existential questioning of what he’s even doing with his life (relatable).

The doc was recommended to me by an art school lecturer and it is a MUST WATCH for anyone interested in abstract art and process – it’s a fantastic wee glimpse into a brilliant creative mind. I’ve popped a clip below, and you can watch the full doc on BBC iPlayer.

John describes his practice as being in a ‘dialogue’ with his paintings – where he puts down a mark, stands back, and then responds with another mark – he was always fixing and editing and adding in surprises, in a back-and-forth kind of way – like a conversation.

The idea of having a back-and-forth conversation with a painting stuck in my mind and I had to try it for myself. The resulting pair of paintings sparked what would become my core painting practice (and still is today!). Often I’ll ask myself ‘what if I just try x to see what happens,’ and just full send it, and worry about the outcome once it’s done. It’s an extremely liberating yet vulnerable way to approach painting, and relies on intuition a lot, and I really really love it.

^ I was testing an alternative installation (after watching John Hoyland flip an 8 foot tall painting upside down just because he could) – I wanted to see how paintings intended to be landscapes felt up on their sides… still unsure!

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Read a layer-by-layer insight into the process of creating these paintings over at ‘In Conversation #1’