Looking at previous posts, I thought I'd update regarding a piece I referred to as being loosely based on, amongst others things, Bruegel's winter landscapes. It's lain around the studio in a barely sketched out state for almost a year and was resolved recently over the course of a couple of weeks. As I previously mentioned, lots of the right X's arrived at the same time - some quite unexpectedly, but they seemed to fit the 'sense' the work was taking on. It retains all the characteristics I'd envisaged when I first began the piece but like a good whisky, it took on other flavours along the way. A post apocalyptic aftermath kind of feel - courtesy of 18th century lichen engravings cut into the forms of meteorite shards; a night in the studio listening to a radio documentary on the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster which reduced me to tears, a reaction to the Worlds' inevitable lurch to the Right and the media coverage of what I consider to be an uncomfortable period for those of us with any sort of social conscience - hence the title 'Vermaak'...'Entertainment', from the Flemish. A figure on the roof seems to be taking a dram, or is he holding his head in despair? The clouds are not clean, idyllic things; they are sulphurous and toxic and emerging from them is the Hand of ? Any church goer from the Renaissance on would recognise the iconography immediately; it is of course the Hand of God. But this hand is unusual. It is female, ruffled and bejewelled and it offers no succour whilst strange growths ooze from the walls of a hut on the ice. The ice will soon melt and as I postulated previously in other posts, all the shit and grime that snow and ice can obliterate will once again become visible.
Much like the slow cooking movement and the 'one pot', my work can tend towards slow production rather than quantity at speed and the inherent quality issues that can sometimes entail. And there's less washing up.
Looking at previous posts, I thought I'd update regarding a piece I referred to as being loosely based on, amongst others things, Bruegel's winter landscapes. It's lain around the studio in a barely sketched out state for almost a year and was resolved recently over the course of a couple of weeks. As I previously mentioned, lots of the right X's arrived at the same time - some quite unexpectedly, but they seemed to fit the 'sense' the work was taking on. It retains all the characteristics I'd envisaged when I first began the piece but like a good whisky, it took on other flavours along the way. A post apocalyptic aftermath kind of feel - courtesy of 18th century lichen engravings cut into the forms of meteorite shards; a night in the studio listening to a radio documentary on the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster which reduced me to tears, a reaction to the Worlds' inevitable lurch to the Right and the media coverage of what I consider to be an uncomfortable period for those of us with any sort of social conscience - hence the title 'Vermaak'...'Entertainment', from the Flemish. A figure on the roof seems to be taking a dram, or is he holding his head in despair? The clouds are not clean, idyllic things; they are sulphurous and toxic and emerging from them is the Hand of ? Any church goer from the Renaissance on would recognise the iconography immediately; it is of course the Hand of God. But this hand is unusual. It is female, ruffled and bejewelled and it offers no succour whilst strange growths ooze from the walls of a hut on the ice. The ice will soon melt and as I postulated previously in other posts, all the shit and grime that snow and ice can obliterate will once again become visible.
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AuthorCameron Ross has taught Fine Art Printmaking at Grays School of Art, Aberdeen, Scotland since 1988. His practice encompasses a wide range of print media, painting, collage and multiple production. Archives
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