I LOVE titles! One of my favourites is Where There's A Ffish There's A Lemon - the title of a small painting I own by Christine McArthur. The title makes me smile.
I will post a photograph of it soon (my computer is not letting me uploadd photographs today..)
With my painting Ice and Lemon the thought process went something like this..I used irridescent paint for the sky and found myself adding more and more colours. The icy blue needed some lemon to make it sparkle a bit, and the painting was becoming more and more effervescent - almost party like. I thought of a G&T and being asked would you like Ice and lemon with that - Yes please! A fun title.
Oten the titles are very straightforward. Yellow Gate In The Snow, Snow At Chrissie's House. I am very aware that , especially in semi-abstract works, the title is often the viewrs way into the work.
The painting definitely does take on a life of it's own and evolves as a kind of negotiation. In fact I have just had an argument with one! Highly unusual . I wanted an area in Yellow Gate In The Snow to be a clearing in the forest, but the space kept insisting that it was a house. I gave in in the end. It is now a house, and I love it.
How can I describe the creative process. Demanding, exhausting sometimes. Exhilerating and really exciting. Every brushstroke is a decision (which is probably why it is tiring) and, like all decisions, you are often asking yourself Is it the right one? So between the actual putting of paint on canvas there is a lot of looking and meditating and judging going on. And at the back of your mind, as even the wonderfully talented pianist Vikingur Olafsson says is a nervousness about whether the world will like it! I have to make sure that thought is kept very much in the background or it would paralyse me...
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