PAINTED OBJECTS
Besides my home studio I have an other, quite special, place to make art: our spiritual home which is a log cabin. The cabin is in classic Alberta ranch country known as the Porcupine Hills, south west of Calgary. It is alltogether both rough and sweet. I can build things with locally found materials, paint and make objects in my garage studio or paint en plein air in the area including at the river. Especially in the garage I can make a total mess, make noise, try things; for painting the breeze keeps the air relatively free from my oils and thinners.
Can Paintings
Can Paintings are either painted abstracts where, instead of all marks by paint, one or more marks are by affixing cans. Or, they can be considered painted objects. Pieces where the paint on the support and the paint on the can are contiguous and the focus becomes the can and the various ways it operates in the overall operation of the finished work.
These pieces use rusty cans left by homesteaders in the early part of the last century. The cans were dropped in the homesteader’s personal “dump” adjacent cultivated land. The cans are sprinkled within rocks. The rocks are small glacial erratics, which the homesteader removed from crop lands over the years. The pile of rocks and cans is a testament to a way of spending a life on challenging terrain; period. I.e., fully engaging oneself in the geography in a purely analog way.
I try and paint the support and cans when I am out there at the can and rock pile site. I bring some tools and try to affix the cans on site, too. Because, doing so connects to working (on) the land like the homesteaders did; and it stimulates a making process that is more a visceral reaction (also informed by my personal feelings about the particular homesteader in question). The views/smells/windy air, even the flies; everything around me, drives the work.
Bean Can Lids
Bean Can Lids in part stem from connecting to the old homesteaders way of life. I save the cans from bean containers (“tin cans”). The lids make good supports. Using themn is a way of making use of what is available. Most of the time I paint rings corresponding with the lids’ manufactured ring profiles. Sometimes Albers’ colour teachings inform, or Matisse’s painting colours. Or, choosing from the paint left on the palette from a plein air painting session. These relate to recycling and not wasting.
Neil Kathol Visual Art 