Painting/Looking Symposium 16 April University of Lincoln 2015

Great to be able to go to a Symposium completely dedicated to Contemporary Painting. In the morning there were talks by Professor Beth Harland titled 'Working with wilful Obscurity'. This got me thinking about my gestures in my paintings and how I am always thinking that all the gestures in my work must be decisive as if they are not then I am not committing myself to a position in painting - they remain obscure. Maybe it's ok to remain obscure? Following this was another excellent talk by Dr Catherine Furguson on 'The bits and pieces of painting: some thoughts about Albers and Gaudi in Usle's La Gardanta de Albers, Las Muelas do Gaudi. This talk got me thinking about what she calls 'involunary memory triggers'. I have always been intereted in how when painting I search for recognition of these triggers all the time. I think I moved away from working abstractly some years ago because I felt that experience was important and that the act of looking drawing and painting the objects around me would help to recall this 'involunary memory'. Interesting!

The afternoon was great too and the conversation between Dr Richard Davey and Iain Andrews has given me an ideas as to how to resolve the paintings I have been working on since Jan. I plan to disrupt the picture plane, introduce non representational aspects in an attempt to make them less litereal. Note to self to look again at the work of Prunella Clough.

I found it fascinating to think about academia and painting practice and the introduction of the PhD and what that has done to the debate about the visual in painting in opposition to the philosophical. I think DR Richard Davey said some poignant things about this.

Finally it was fascinating to hear about the ideas behind the detail show and how these ideas have grown out of Andrew Bracey's painting practice. I admire his ambition. Well done Andrew and thank you for organising the day.