Page 9 - Essay Awakenings Reloaded by Paul McCloskey

focal point is placed to the left allowing it to emerge more gradually from right
to left. Although my handling of paint is varied in different parts of the surface

there is a more natural flow to this work. But it maintains the essence of the
landscape. The gold textured areas are more integrated and I have allowed thin
veins of gold to appear naturally within the painting.

However ultimately I can only be honest in the visual language I
speak and trust that when the viewer looks at my work they too will somewhat
experience its intention. Picasso made reference to this when he said,

‘Beginning with Van Gogh, however great we may be, we are all in a measure,
autodidacts – you might almost say primitive painters. Painters no longer live
within a tradition and so each one of us must re-create an entire language’

(1990, p.67-68). In creating this language the onus for the painter is to have
honest openness, to truth, to free expression without ego. This alert awareness
with the absence of ego in the making of my paintings is primary, how any
painter reaches this state can be a deeply personal one and is as varied as there

are individuals, for some it may be to delve into their past or to use meditation
or work from imagination to working directly from life, for me it is the process

itself. Being inspired within and without, this inspiration which is easier
understood when felt rather than explained in words. When felt then the choices
of colours, composition and marks made become inspired rather than contrived.
It is here, in that place, where I believe I am most open and most susceptible to

creating my best paintings.

The contemporary painters I have interviewed for my essay also

acknowledge the importance of this openness during the process of creating, ‘I
am aware when I have let go of a painting and it then leads the dance’. (Madden
2010). ‘A great painting is without ego, it is of the maker and completely

separate of the maker, at the same time.... It is a search for truth and honesty, of
knowing oneself and accepting oneself fully’ (Doran, 2010). ‘Through the
exploration of the subject in paint, the painter moves towards the unconscious,
moving to a stage that is instinctive, intuitive, and beyond deliberate intent’.

(Gaynor, 2010). Bridget Riley also refers to this place that is beyond logic,
beyond ego, beyond thinking, ‘There is an area, and a very sensitive primary
area for an artist, which cannot be referred to directly without damage. It is as

though the impulse which is about to be expressed should remain unavailable to
the logic of the intellect in order to find its true form in whatever field or metier
the artist has chosen’. Robert Kudielka, ‘The Eye’s Mind: Bridget Riley