These little injuries

These Little Injuries Acrylic and debris on canvas

 Darwin introduced the idea of the struggle for survival in nature, until then many Victorians simply assumed that the English countryside was a playground and that they were its chief beneficiaries so it must have come as a shock to discover that, for the most part, the animals sharing the world with us were in fact facing violent lives and daily struggle. In this way the painting has more in common with my other works (Bride and Groom lie hidden for three days and I'm the new King I'll take the Queen) and explores similar themes and ideas. As an artist my concern is that I may be a little overly pre-occupied by sex and violence.  

 This painting was simply a progression of ideas I had been experimenting with in my other paint work, process and materiality. For this painting I included card, newspaper, rubber shavings, dust, earth and animal saw dust. The more organic materials were chosen for obvious reasons as I felt that they gave the piece more legitimacy in terms of subject matter. However I really should have pushed these ideas further within the piece. My relative conservatism in the materials I used was a conscious effort on my part to produce a painting that would retain a more pleasing narrative structure, but has only led to limiting the piece and robbing it of any real impact or lasting impression. It's a nice enough image and some of the tonal and textural variations are interesting, but the work feels a little under worked. I could of course continue to work the painting, adding layers of paint and debris, but I think as an artist you know when you've taken it as far as it will go and in this case I just don't think the imagery or my initial approach were strong enough to begin with.

It's not easy judging when to finish a piece. It's a difficult balancing act. Too much and the work is a mess, too little and the viewer will be underwhelmed and somehow short changed. It's a shame that this piece isn't better, but it's themes and subject matter are ones that have occupied a lot of my thinking over the year and should become clearer as I progress.