Two unconnected conversations have recently led me to question my colour palette for my current project. In a zoom workshop with the BCB, I admitted to loving colour, yet my work on this MA has been very minimalistic. Then in an unrelated conversation about tiles, Rob said why don't you paint your tiles, and then you will be clear on what you features you want on your tiles. This did indeed help me to clarify some of the important features. However it also raised some questions.
I sat down one evening and did three small quick abstract paintings of cathedral gardens. I was thinking about incorporating architectural features, but I was also starting to think about movement in the spaces between buildings. The paintings did seem architectural urban, but the 'people' lines and marks were insignificant. Perhaps this is not surprising because I have focused on representing the architecture and history of the buildings in my work so far. I was however surprised at the colour palette I had chosen. The paintings were very dark, mainly blacks and greys, and the inclusion of primary colours had heightened this effect.
When I was painting, I did not use any images or research, I just thought about the city and made the paintings. I tried to work out why I had chosen these colours, maybe because it was late in the day when I made them and it was getting dark? Maybe because I had been trying to represent movement using black red and white slips at university that week? The question was turning over in my mind for a couple of days.
On Thursday Micaela was sitting nearby and she saw the paintings in my sketchbook. I said to her that I wasn't sure why I had used that colour palette. She said they looked ok. She thought that Manchester was more brick red, which surprised me. She said that she expected that if we sat down to paint the same scene we would probably use completely different colours. I thought if I was painting an actual view of the city I could colour-match it with a fair degree of accuracy, and assumed she would too. She then said that if we both set out to paint Manchester, we would choose different locations.
I think this is probably true. I know that arriving in Manchester from the south of the city, I would travel along either Mosley or Cross Street towards the centre. This means that, on every visit I have even made, I would pass some of the grandest civic and commercial buildings. My main routes are marked in red below, and some of the buildings visible from these routes are shown below.
So, for me, Manchester is made of stone. These buildings look black and dark grey in older photos before the Clean Air Act in 1956. This may be influencing my colour choice, as I am researching 1967, 1911 and 1863.
On the actual site the Cathedral is cream coloured stone, as is the Corn Exchange. Urbis itself is highly reflective but has an opaque coloured glass that has an icy pale green or pale blue tone. Lancaster Avenue Arcade used to be an iron and glass, with walls painted white and pale green. The original buildings of Long Millgate, like the Sun Inn, had black wooden beams on a white background. Chethams has some red, mainly in the new part that used to be Manchester Grammar. In the middle of this area is now a large area of green grass. Looking out from the site between the buildings is the Printworks, with a large red sign, the building is white but is covered in neon signs at night in red, blue and yellow.
So far I have tested a number of black, and white glazes, alongside some greens, blues, and rust. There are a lot of green colours on the walls of the cathedral, fennel street, and the corn exchange, both lichen and water stains. I am waiting for the result of some tests layering these colours, that could not be fired this
week.
I need to understand my choices and think carefully about colour as I continue to develop my research. Whilst the buildings might be reflected in the glazes I currently have, everything might all change when I try to incorporate my research on the people who lived and worked in the area. I might need to have a very different palette to represent this area of research. ,
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