Faces appearing... (Part 1)
'Rockfaces' ( in sections )
1 March, 2015
I painted 'Rockfaces' a few years back. Yesterday, a friend asked me to tell him the story of how it came about. I had told him before and he wanted to hear it again. And so, I thought I would share it with you too.
I was trying to get an effect that looked like marble or stone. I laid down layers of colour pulling away wet paint with various textured materials as I built up layer upon layer . There could be thirty or forty layers of paint as I didn't keep track of it at the time simply putting down one layer on top of another as the under layer was dry and stripping away from the wet layer. I remember using quite a few white or light toned layers among the darks.
As I say the original idea was to create an abstract stone-like piece. When I was satisfied with the effect I began to see face shapes in the rocks and scratched into their surface carving into the rock as I revealed more and more identities. The shapes within the craggy surface suggested the faces to me.
And yet I feel that in some subliminal way I actually carved one face that is me! This unknowing self-awareness happens to me every now and again. It is as if you know yourself best from inside out although you are not really conscious of that knowing.
Rockfaces © (detail)
I recognise myself in the face (top centre) gazing to the right and down.
Rockfaces © 2007