Kambala Painting Production Phase 7

Water Projection Within The Perspective

Phase 7 shows the continued evolution of the Million colour Kambala painting. This phase concentrates on the second stage layers that builds the third dimension which acts to promote the sense of the buffalo driving forward through the water.

From the last phase as I worked my way down the hind quarters of the buffalo and started on its back leg, I realised that if was going to complete the visible elements of the back leg with is final completed top lay of paint – I first had to understand how the leg was being wrapped up in the surrounding water.

So I set out to explore the explosion of water in the area under the buffalo's body. I recognised that I needed to produce the effect of projected water. This meant developing a consciousness of how this projected layer of water could be fitted into the overall perspective of the composition. Without just creating a dense mass of paint that could contradict the perspective of the composition as a whole.

To gain a conscious appreciation of the dynamic of this watery area, I had to figure out the sequence of constructing the layers and the depth those layers should reach to produce the feeling of the illusion I felt it possible to create.

Placing the foundation layers down helped me understand the surfaces and their interaction with each other (the mechanics behind the illusion of motion through matter). At this phase of the composition it is more important for me to understand this than to produce the perfected top layer of painted 'reality'.

This attention to the three dimensional surfaces that form the mechanics underpinning the illusion, sets dynamic realism apart from other forms of photo or hyper-realist forms of art.

Film 1

Enjoy this short film showing the layers of paint being developed over the last two months.

The images below reveal the before and after - showing the difference the contours of paint make to the area of the water explosion.

Using Abstraction To See What's Real

After completing my understanding of how the layers of paint under the buffalo interact to cause the 3d explosion of water, my attention then turned to the major 'problem' areas of the composition behind the buffalo and the runner. These are areas of the composition that seem to disappear under a mass of water droplets that are so bright and entangled, it is extremely difficult to make out their individual forms and how they sit within the depth perspective. If I just painted a mass of largely white random droplets of various sizes and placed them in these hard to understand areas, I would risk upsetting the balance of the whole illusion and viewers would detect a 'fault' within the patternation of disbursing water. I realised that in order to make the illusion believable I had to find a way of seeing the forms and how they hung in the perspective.

I took the problem areas from my photographic material and pushed and pulled the brightness and contrasts around to reveal the forms and how they were positioned on the 2D surface. This was my start point that enabled me to see how these areas of water interacted with the back and foreground.

I then started a couple of months of drafting the positions of how the water was being dispersed. Which has caused an abstract patternation to become visible on the canvas. These droplets are outlined in bright colours, many brighter than they will be when the 3D surface becomes established later.

This points to the wonderful complexity with which reality must be decoded to really understand what is taking place and how it can be fitted back together. These are the areas of contemplated abstraction before they are covered over, parts of the story of Dynamic Realist painting that are rarely told or seen. Abstraction is not a new art form to the 20th century. Realist artist's particularly those embarking large scale compositions would have had to make sense of compositional focus and space by abstracting areas to appreciate there 'effect' on the whole. Hence you would find a Matisse like thinking under a Turner and a Rothko like contemplation under a Constable.

Film 2

This short film shows close-up areas of drafting and discusses the importance of the process at this stage of the painting.