I blogged quite regularly a while back but got out of a routine and eventually stopped. Recently I signed up to Substack with the intention to resume writing short pieces there shortly. The discipline of articulating reflections and insights, not only helps my cognitive health but also supports my artistic practice. Making art is a personal, highly conscious undertaking and it's helpful to anchor the practice to the contemporary cultural environment and to art history.

 

In the search of a resonant, though still descriptive and relevant title for the blog, I came up with Mathematics & Chaos. I felt it was a pretty accurate descriptor of the twin, seemingly opposed approaches to creativity I've adopted in recent years. It's also the title of my YouTube channel.

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Of course mathematicians would tell us that mathematics is in all things, even in the most chaotic of systems. But as a non-mathematician, my attraction to the square as a creative space - an invented shape that doesn't exist in nature - seems especially mathematical. Neither landscape nor portrait, a square suits my 'in-the-round' working method where I only decide the orientation of a new work once it's finished. Also mathematical, has been my approach to composition - especially in relation to colour proportionality - though this is relaxing somewhat currently. I still take care to ensure that horizontal and vertical lines are always at right angles to the frame. 

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As for the chaotic, I value the role chance plays in art making. I enjoy throwing dilute paint and seeing how it lands. Surprise and novelty bring energy to the process and will often prompt further ideas. Only rarely though is it total chaos. Most often I will carefully select precisely where in the picture I'm going to be chaotic! Is that chaos? I don't really care. I do what works for me. Every painter finds their own technique. Below is a recent example of my mathematics and chaos in action.