maria kuipers british abstract painter
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'Fishy Things'
This is a arts collaborative venture between artists Maria Kuipers an abstract mixed media painter from Brighton and John Jennings an abstract painter from London.
We're both on the cusp of new developments and directions in our paintings and drawings and aim towards creating a new body of individual and collaborative work for a painting exhibition in May 2021.
We met through Creative Future 13 Group, a charity based in Brighton, who work with underrepresented artists and writers. We have since learnt about each other's working methods and ethics, and although we have our own innate distinctive styles we've also discovered similar artists who inspire us, such as Roy Oxlade, Gillian Eyres, Elizabeth Cummings, amongst others. So we visited the Tate and other galleries together, fortunately just before the pandemic hit, but we've continued our art discussions since.
Our aim is to begin a painting collaboration with research and development during the summer of 2021.
At this stage its unknown what will transpire and that is the beauty of serious painting. I know it will be an immersive process, exciting and surprising - I'm expectant in finding something new and evocative!
Depending on the pandemic restrictions in the coming months of August and September we'll share our studio sessions by visiting each others art studios to research and explore experimental alternatives and concepts.
I will post developments as soon as we start this process
Why not visit your local park or green area near you. Take a soft pencil, rubber, wax crayon and paper with you. Its' surprising when you sit and wait how many different varieties of birds you see. You can explore their flight paths as they collect food and draw their journey. A simple line drawing can create wonderful abstract shapes and contours. Or a simple 10 second drawing of their varied body shapes without looking at the paper. Try to capture the essence of what you see. Create a 'frottage', which essentially is a rubbing that can be developed into a drawing or painting. The Surrealists used this technique to create weird and wonderful dream like and fantasy imagery. Collect leaves, stones, twigs, whatever you find that has a slightly raised textured surface. Place the paper over the item and rub gently to start using your pencil or crayon. You'll need something firm underneath the item. As you explore you can rub harder in areas, perhaps move the paper around and overlay or repeat a pattern. It's just a starting point ....