Artist: Derek Lind
Installed Advent 1. 02 December, 2018
Of his process Derek said,
“The brief was to have the words of Matthew 11: 28-30, from the Message, around the edge of the table so the Communion elements could be in the centre. I wrote out the words – over 60 in all – It has to be about the words. I broke them up into phrases that made sense in themselves. I’ve painted a couple of round paintings before (tondo is what they’re called) but they had a top and a bottom. This table needed to be approached from all directions; hopefully it makes sense from wherever you view it.
I drew some large circles on the top and divided the outer ring into 20 sections. This imposed a structure. When I paint I don’t know what I’m doing or where I’m going but there is a structure undergirding my ineptitude – like a formula for living.
I painted alternate segments divided with masking tape. So I was working blind. I tried to balance hot and cold colours but basically I just slap on paint until I can stand it. Oil paint, acrylic, enamels, metallic, industrial, gypsum….
Then the masking tape comes off and I work on the piece as a whole. Working by instinct and experience. The painting calls the shots.
The middle section has purple, metallics, lapis lazuli, denoting royalty or significance, the colour of Mary’s robes in Renaissance art. There’s lacerated red – ‘by his stripes….’
Because my maths isn’t very good I ended up with a small segment left over. I painted it red and green – stop and start, start and finish – Deb my neighbour who is also an artist came over and said she didn’t like it, so I painted it over with white and scratched an arrow in it. You can see the red and green under the arrow.
As I said, basically I slap on paint until I feel it works.”
