PATRICIA GOODE
Photo: Di Alexander
Spring 2006 Volume 4 No. 1 Page 5
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THIS ISSUE PAGES
PATRICIA GOODE WORKSHOP
If you were looking for a new approach to painting then this was it! Throw away all thoughts of convention and inhibitions like drawing the composition, painting the sky, background, middle ground then foreground. Oh no! Think back to playschool days, adorn your apron for protection, spread newspaper across the table and we're away.
Wet your paper, choose a few colours, apply liberally with a large brush
in a random manner and stand back to see what you've got. But don't despair
- this is where all the knowledge you have acquired over the years about
art kicks in and gives a whole new meaning to artistic licence! What can
it represent? Can you see trees, a landscape, flowers, a seascape, perhaps
a still life or shapes of buildings. All it needs is a large dose of imagination
and then you can start adding all kinds of textures or use a different
medium to emphasise something - expand shapes to enhance the subject -
use the colours laid down as your background. The options are endless
if only we can open our minds.
Well, we all had a go and it was hard to let go of convention. In fact we all looked a little shell shocked but applied ourselves to the task and gradually loosened up (not without a few embarrassed giggles) and had a good go but it was so difficult not to stray back to our usual comfortable ways. This was an approach which would take time to develop - the basics were there if we wanted them but it was clear it would not suit everyone.
For me this provided just the springboard I had subconsciously been looking for. At last a new way to do backgrounds for my floral paintings and to be bold about painting the flowers - forget great detail - substitute shape, form, texture and colour. Use these to suggest the type of flowers I was painting, out with reference books! Just the release I needed.
Mary Maskell
