College week 4/1 Process Painting and Acrylics

First of two day-long workshops with Mark Samsworth on Process Painting.  We started with a brief overview of how process painting fits into the post-war development of new styles of abstract painting, from the Abstract Impressionism of the 1940s and 50s and 60s (Pollock, Tobey, Motherwell, de Koonig, Lee Krasner), through the Post Painterly Abstraction of the 60s and 70s (Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenuaer, Kenneth Noland, Morris Louis) and on to Process Painting in the 80s and 90s (Callum Innes, Jason Martin, Clem Crosby, Ian Davenport, Mali Morris).


We talked about how acrylic paint can be manipulated and altered by the addition of various mediums and additives, to create better flow, gloss or matte surfaces, textures and other special finishes.  


We also talked about the various elements which together make up the painting process, and which can be varied and manipulated to produce different effects. These include having a systematic approach, the action of applying the paint, the tools we use, colour, surface, base board, type of additive and finish.  


The point of process paining is to focus on the process of making the painting.  There is no hint of figurative or representational art.  The action of creating the piece is the justification for it.  There may be a title, or maybe not. The finished work is complete when it is complete.  Often process painting works are very large, although they can be on a small scale too.  The process may be repetitive or a single process.  It could probably be reproduced, and may lead to series of similar works.


So our task today was to try these things out on a small scale, to experiment to see what effects we could make, in preparation for making a bigger and more composed piece next week.  So we played!  We had an endless supply of small primed boards, and lots of paint and different additives, and we tried out different approaches, using brushes, palette knives, spreaders, cardboard,  and whatever else we could find to apply the paint.  


We all produced very different results in widely different styles.  Here are some of mine....