COVID COLOUR CHALLENGE
This is a strange time.
It feels like the world has suddenly paused and started to notice things that are small. So small that our eyes do not see them… but we are aware and have a sense that they are there.
As a painter, I am interested in understanding how the macroscopic wet material colour that I see and feel oozing out of a tube, is also a hidden microscopic world of molecules. With so many coloured pigments available today for the artists’ palette, each coloured particle’s inherent qualities may appear similar, but their differences can be so subtle, that they are undetectable to our senses. By observing pigments in a wet state (watercolour), differences of sureness, brightness and depth are visible but the potential for each individual coloured pigment becomes more evident when their behaviours are heightened, by applying them to a paper surface they and watching them dry.
My PhD research plan had me now preparing to travel in May to Greece, for an observational installation at my grandmother’s ancestral island of Chios in Greece. In June, I was to travel to London for a studio residency at Colart International’s Innovation and Development Labs, working again with the extraordinary Winsor & Newton archive of rare pigments and George Field’s notebooks, as well as, meet with senior research scientist and author of Red- The Art And Science Of A Colour, Spike Bucklow at the fabulous Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge. The final writing of my thesis would rely heavily on time abroad.
and then ….. the Covid19 virus infected these plans.
With a few days notice, I quickly had to move my research work from UNSW art & design, set up a space at home that was more conducive to a practice-led researcher and then I went through a crazed hyper-vigilant Covid cleaning regime at home. It was a mixture of fear and uncertainty, for my husband who continues his battle with blood cancer, as well as, the grief for loss of freedom and experiences in faraway places. As with any time of uncertainty that I have experienced in my life, I look to my art practice to find the balance. My life reflected in my art and reflected in my life…as it examines the very small particles in red pigments and connects the inorganic to the organic. Each of my observations of red pigments is a study of life… its flesh and blood.
These new circumstances and my disappointment that physically my macroscopic journey across the globe was now focused on the microscopic endeavours in isolation at my Sydney-based studio. I decided to set myself a challenge… a timed documented project that would take place during my Covid isolation at home. I wanted this project to tie my interest in the writings of the Greek philosopher, Aristotle and the relations of knowledge with a systematic and unified explanation. So, in the spirit of Aristotle, the ‘Covid Colour Challenge’ was not merely about observing and recording but above all, to explain…the Beauty of Colour.
Surprisingly, the Covid lockdown provided me with a unique and unexpected opportunity to produce an observational study that I entitled, the Covid Colour Challenge. For each enacted observation conducted exclusively with the red pigments, I learn more of the nuances of their beauty and behaviour. As I reflect on Goethe’s writing in Theory Of Colours, “Every pigment has its own peculiar nature as regards to its effect on the eye; besides this it has its peculiar quality, that requires a corresponding technical method in its application,” each observation will convince that the process of painting with material colours is a progressive experience, it’s not a final or complete state. It is in a constant state of flux and the artist must perform with these ‘peculiar qualities.’
The Covid Colour Challenge expanded my understanding of Field’s ‘Beauty of Colour’ and allowed me to distinguish subtle variances between each red pigment by creating structured arrangements and reviewing the echoed actions. These arrangements could build connections for me but also acknowledge the serendipity, unpredictability and beauty of artists’ colours.
I'm interested in the nineteenth century English colourmaker, George Field’s descriptive observations about the beauty of each colour pigment. His notebooks describe experiences, physical interactions and critical observations of the individuality of the pigments available in his time but they have also provided a reflection today for a sensory and personal connection with the materiality of contemporary colours.
