In search of texture

These days my creative brain is preoccupied with creating texture in my paintings. I know this is something I have always loved and if you know my art, you will already see that it is a feature in many of my paintings. I have decided to start documenting my experiments and thought processes for creating different types of texture. I want to keep track of what I’m using, how I’m using it and what responses it evokes.

What do I mean by texture? For me it is anything that creates a surface that is physically uneven in some way. I have traditionally thought of this as a raised texture, made either through thick paint or various mediums mixed into paint. Something you can run your fingers over. I have previously been trying to create textures that you not only can run your fingers over, but textures that call you to reach out and feel them. I am in the early stages of this, but I have realised that colour also plays a large part in evoking this feeling. Bold colour is another big feature of my creative practice, and I am learning how to better control this aspect of my painting - not just colour mixing, but also incorporating the full range of high and low values in my work.

But I recently made a painting that had the most beautiful texture created from the way thin layers of paint had bled into each other. This was actually an accident, as I was simply putting down thin washes of colour in order to build up the painting later. But I added more glazing/turps (zest it) than usual and when I came back the next morning, the effect was magical. It looked gritty and jagged, and you could see the tension between the colours - I couldn’t stop looking at it. I kept the painting like that and worked around it. This has made me start to think of texture in a broader sense - not just uneven through raised texture, but uneven through paint effects.

I’m looking forward to experimenting, but want to have some logic and order to it so I can easily recreate the effects I want. This blog is initially going to be a record of my experiences. Though I know from my experience of blog writing, that I will end up writing about more!