When Only the Moon Rages

The title of this mixed media painting is borrowed from a poem called ‘In my Craft or Sullen Art’ by Dylan Thomas.

I made the work in 2009, I was familiar with the poem, but chose the title after completing it, as for me, when making a painting, it is vital that I am as free as is possible from the direct influence of a  conscious subject.   

The  intention is to convey a sense of drama, in the contrast between the hot colours in the lower third of the picture, and the cooler, deep blues in the upper two thirds, the intersected and conjoined diversity of marks across the picture plane, contribute to a feeling of circular motion and restless energy.

The picture is also about materials per se, not merely as a vehicle for creating an illusion, but materials ‘of themselves’. The lower half is comprised of thick impasto, applied by whatever blades and tools seemed most appropriate at the time,  sometimes the paint is scraped off, to show previous layers.

The colour to the upper half is vigorously applied by brush and palette knife. In parts, some masking has been used, and in others the surface is gouged through to the paper;  the angular, but nebulous marks are made with pastel and chalk.

The aim of this truly, mixed media approach, is to create as much surface interest as possible, whilst at the same time, striving to make an immediate and visually arresting image.

George Taylor

October 2019

Taylor-Thwaites Studios, Stonewalls, Sturt Road, Charlbury, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 3EP

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This picture is on Saunders Waterford (300lb) Cotton Mould Made Acid Free Paper, set within a deep cut, off-white mount within a lime-washed hardwood frame.  It measures 81 centimetres x 100 centimetres overall and will be included in Mallam’s, Modern and Post War British Art Sale in Oxford on Friday 6^th December 2019. (max.fisher@mallams.co.uk  01865241358  

Ariel's Song

With the help of a professional photographer, I am planning to make a video of a ‘journey’ through a selection of my ‘Elemental Series’. Rather like a helicopter, or a drone moving through a three dimensional, sculptural space.

Most of my wall-hung work is made on a flat surface, rather than on an easel, only placing it upright occasionally to assess its veracity. I have long been fascinated by the effect of laying the work flat, and then experiencing this as a kind of ‘terrain’, as if it were, almost literally, a landscape.

This piece is not from that series, is multi-coloured, and less dimensional in actual terms, but these still shots give some idea of how visually exciting that concept might be.

Quantum Moment

Quantum Moment

I made ‘Quantum Moment’ ten years ago, in 2009.

Essentially, it is about energy, a ‘controlled explosion’ of colour and form, and of course, could allude to a number of things, or to nothing, or at least to ‘no thing’.

A concentrated image, possibly emblematic of the constant destruction of innumerable galaxies far larger than our own throughout the immensity of time and space.

On the other hand, the title may allude to what is commonly referred to as ‘The Big Bang’ – the fraction of an instant some 13.8 billion years or so ago, when science tells us, the known universe and thus, time itself began; ostensibly from ‘no thing’.

A human-made rendering in paint and other materials essentially ‘of itself’, possibly symbolic of, but certainly no more than that, of an event so extraordinarily complex as to be beyond meaningful human visual or oral description or representation. But out of which, much later on in cosmic time, and as a consequence of evolutionary circumstances, human-kind evolved, with the capacity to make art, and to attempt to understand the circumstances in which he found him/herself.

When asked by Hans Hoffman if he painted from nature, Jackson Pollock retorted, ‘I am nature’!

Possibly, one of the most veracious, and thus one of the most valid artistic statements ever made.

George Taylor

August 2019

Taylor-Thwaites Studios, Stonewalls, Sturt Road, Charlbury, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, OX7 3EP

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Should you wish to view ‘Quantum Moment’ in our studio gallery please call us on 01608 810174

This work is in mixed media, measures 80 centimetres x 100 centimetres, it is on Saunders Waterford (300lb) Cotton Mould Made Acid Free Paper, and is set within a deep off white mount within a hardwood frame.