AARON followed MARTIN'S written process to make his work:
Martin van der Wal:
Martin van der Wal:
The Act of Creation.
the Thing is an alien.
the Thing must be skinned.
the Thing writhes under the knife.
the Thing becomes the thing.
I am bored.
another Thing comes along.
Aaron Matheson:
AARON MATHESON drawing 1 Charcoal on paper 59.5 x 42cm |
AARON MATHESON drawing 3 Mixed media on paper 59.5 x 42cm |
MARTIN followed AARON's written process to make his work:
Aaron Matheson:
I collect the materials: paints, drawing equipment, palette, brushes, easel, masking tape, paper, sketchbooks, rags, solvents, water, canvas, water-based crayons, jars of turpentine and of medium.
I ride or walk somewhere into the bush or coast, and start walking with equipment. I walk and explore as long as I feel. Maybe draw in sketchbook while walking. Try to connect physical sensations of being in landscape with marks. Use blind drawing to draw in a haptic way, i.e. putting my physical senses of touch, sight, sound, smell, in the drawing. Make as many or as few drawings as I feel, moving around, keeping engaged. Sometimes rotate the drawing.
Sometimes something holds me for longer so I draw it from a fixed position. I have an the aim of getting closer to the direct experience- the raw experience that happens just before I think- “ah I like that” or “I don't like that” The impressions- textures, colours, tones and forces in the landscape. I try to allow any analysis and story that emerges to flow on, and return to the direct experience.
I am watchful for any preciousness or holding expressed in the body as tension. I allow that to be, while I continue. In this way I aspire for drawing or painting to be a practise of awareness. I take regular breaks.
I ask the painting what it thinks it might need, and push it as far as I like- sometimes stopping short of frustration, maybe pushing through it.
When I have finished, I pack oil paintings face-to-face with bits of wood as spacers, and tape them to hold them together. I put all the images into my back pack, go home and wash my brushes. The images are unpacked, and either displayed as records of the day (trophies) or if I am very attached to them, placed facing the wall.
Martin van der Wal:
Martin van der Wal:
MARTIN VAN DER WAL Annunciation (The Quickening) CGI, pigment print 29.5 x 29.5cm |