Following on from recent charcoal drawings based on trees, I decided to work in colour using pastels. Starting with as near to “random” marks as possible, trying not to think, not having a goal in mind. Starting with blue, it quite quickly became a forest, adding other colours and charcoal.
I started another pastel with yellow, and directing my hand to make swirls and loops. Some orange was added.
More yellow and orange, I wanted it to suggest a glow in the centre.
Added red to the mix. It is a case of working all over the page, jumping around, resisting making any bits too nice.
After a few days gap, not knowing what to do with this, I hit on the idea of a bridge between the two darker edges. For the first time I saw something of an image- maybe a sand storm or tornado. Blue, purple and white were added to some areas.
This has been worked on in many short bursts and I am getting more pleasure from it. I cant keep doing this open-ended work forever, but I do get a buzz from the activity and of the sense of not knowing what is happening. It reminds me of many artists' work, like Jackson Pollock-
And the Chilean surrealist Roberto Matta.
Also the “automatic” drawings of Andre Masson
