Description

Somewhere in Antarctica, near a volcano, there is a geothermal stream that flows over an amethyst crust.  The stream creates a space, and plants grow: first lichen, then fungi, and then moss.

It is also a picture of music that has fascinated me from before I was born, a whole dimension of people/creatures/aliens that talk to me/us.

It is my journey of self-discovery, my desire for the Summerlands.

It is a story told by a range of diverse creatures of how to live together.  I could go on, but you make up your own mind.

Rationale:

This proposal is a synthesis of so many things that I value that I can’t describe. A magical haven so removed and isolated from people.

Once I heard a piece of music, and I listened to it many times. I became convinced that there was a story in the music.  Not in the words, because the music has hardly any words.  The music has gotten hold of me and has become all music.  This is the story I learned from the music

I wanted to paint 1. icebergs, rocks, and an ecosystem in a hostile environment and 2. how to bring them all together.

I wanted to paint this suite of pictures to help me visualise scenes for a film as I do not see my internal imagery.

The film has fascinated me for years.  I try to answer the questions: if there were creatures in the ice, what would they sound like?  If I could see the sounds they made what would the sounds look like?






Methodology: 

Suite of 6 canvasses:
1 x 160cm x 110cm
5 x 25cm x 25cm
The 5 smaller canvasses will be gessoed.

The larger canvas will be a landscape of the ecosystem, to show all the elements as a whole.
The smaller canvasses will represent close-ups of individual organisms in the ecosystem.  Also they will sequence to represent how I think the ecosystem would have evolved.

1.	Amethyst in ice
2.	Inner world of Amethyst
3.	Lichen
4.	Fungi
5.	Moss

Artists that I will research will be William Robinson and Anselm Keifer.  Robinson does lovely abstract landscapes as if he could see all around himself.  I would like to experiment with this perspective, of being really small and looking up. 

Keifer also does abstract work.  I am especially interested in his domes, as I wish the plants to be under a dome of ice.

Timetable:

Week 6:  Stretch canvasses, rabbit skin and prime, start studies

     	 5:  Gesso smaller canvasses, keep painting studies

           4:  Start landscape underpainting

	  3:  Start oil layers of landscape

           2:  Start smaller canvasses, glaze landscape

           1:  Touching up, last glazing of landscape, glaze little guys