Experimental painting © Mari French 2015
Experiments with expressive painting and drawing techniques to loosen up and develop my mark making.
Exciting, fun and frustrating by turns, I’ve found it a worthwhile exercise.
These are painted with acrylics and Inktense sticks, plus gesso, on 300gsm 30×20″ watercolour paper.
Experimental painting © Mari French 2015
Experimental painting © Mari French 2015
experimental drawing © Mari French 2015
experimental drawing © Mari French 2015
Experimental painting © Mari French 2015
Mari French RI : contemporary artworks 
Loving these Mari – don’t know if it is the palette but the ochres seem more ‘landscape’ whilst the cool blues seem ‘architectural’. At the same time they are all very calligraphic. Have you tried turning them through 180 degrees – I like doing this – can really change what you see. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the interesting observations Elaine. The limited palette seems to have focused my mind on line and shape and I’m really finding the process useful. I do turn them around to see what works best 🙂
Great to see these Mari – I really enjoy your work as it inspires me to loosen up – something I can do when I’m just sexperimenting but as soon as I know it’s supposed to get to a finished ‘end’ (even just working on a canvas rather than paper implies this!) I find I can lose the spontaneity. I often find it hard to move away from a horizon, it gives such a clear clue, and without it I feel that sometimes abstract pieces can lose definition and maybe a sense of scale? But working with a more limited colour palette is a great way to make sure you have something balance tonally – good reminder, thank you!
Thanks for the feedback and observations Alice. Glad you enjoyed the post. I sympathise with your dilemmas as I go through the same ones myself! All I can advise, which is what I tell myself, is ‘keep at it’, as one artist/author said ‘trust the process’. 🙂
These are interesting…I really like the limited colour palette. Do you see any of them as ‘finished’ pieces or will you use them like sketches to inform other work? I sometimes think experimental work has a freshness that can get lost in the more thought out/planned work.
Thanks Amanda. Not sure if any of these are finished enough to frame, perhaps one or two. But I think of them as ends in themselves. I’d like to keep going with this method till I’m feeling freer with the process and am producing a body of work in this way. I wholeheartedly agree that experimental pieces/sketches can be fresher than planned work, so I very rarely work further from them. I found the limited colour palette great to work with!
Absolutely worth the effort, Mari. These are quite exciting.
Thanks Anthea, it’s really useful to get your feedback 🙂
All of these paintings seem to have a horizon. If there is any scheme behind them, it seems to be the landscape. Is this a conscious choice or does it come by itself? If you would try to paint a non-landscape, how would that look (in case that interests you)?
You’re right they do nannus. I suppose I was subconsciously thinking of the landscape of the Norfolk Saltmarsh Coast and the tin mining coast of west Cornwall, both areas I’ve been studying lately. It often happens when I’m working on abstract/experimental pieces. Landscape is an important influence in my art, but I’d like to get away from obvious horizons – I sometimes succeed! Thanks for your interesting observation 🙂
really well done! go on…experimenting…
thanks for reading the post and for the valuable encouragement sirpamonen!