Conscious versus Subconscious

Harold Speed says, ‘an artist builds up his technical facility and develops his perceptions by laborious training fully conscious of what he is doing but when it comes to doing good work the conscious mind is centred on what they are trying to express.’

Like a pianist who has learnt to play well, they no longer have to think about the actions of playing this could be said to move into their subconscious leaving their consciousness free to focus on what they are trying to express.

For me, it’s not about picking up a brush and after no practice and no investigation in the vain hope that my rusty actions will instantaneously lead to brilliant work.

I am learning that painting requires continual practice and research. The technique of using brushes, it’s all in the wrist, criss-crossing, rotating, scrubbing, pushing the paint not drawing like I have a pencil in my hand. Exploring the possibilities of paint and how it behaves. A multifaceted understanding of what you are trying to paint, it’s texture, form, weight, informing the way the light falls. When I reach a point that I am confident in these things I can move these into my subconscious and allow my consciousness to consider, the essence of what I am trying to achieve.

Thankfully I’m only five weeks into a 2-year course. My tutor, Jac Saorsa, is in Scotland, meticulously dissecting a leg exposing the layers to gain greater understanding whilst drawing what she sees, a process of subtraction and addition that I find fascinating. As for me I am focused on a foot, a crab shell, and half a pelvis! 

My week has been spent haptic drawing in charcoal and pencil, painting in black-and-white and working back through the multiple paintings I have all over my wall.

Yesterday was toes, such a difficult thing to paint. I sat feeling my foot in my right hand feeling the articulation of the joints, looking at the metatarsals on a skeleton, whilst painting on my gorgeous new canvases.