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Paul Ferguson
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"The Painter's Palette: Alchemy and the Act of Painting is a group of fourteen paintings completed during 2010 and inspired by the sixteenth-century philosophy and practice of alchemy."

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:ADwTDvB5y50J:gradworks.umi.com/1486344.pdf+%22nancy+mayhew%22+alchemical&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjn47tM0mjwL9_wORFdbHk_vaWaQRIbhVTy52EecWRjp2eZFfF5rpuZcZFrn-XTQcnlVmsjCxIjY2ztwT-GHUGV0TUJGzzlBasdOSJt3V9c4baps8eJwIJnu_96d9oFxkr9tKeK&sig=AHIEtbQbNmcIMTtd9seOqdA8LbIIDmcajw&pli=1

http://artgrads.com/openstudios2009/artists/mayhew/mayhew3.jpg

Last edited on Sun Nov 6th, 2011 01:38 pm by Paul Ferguson

adammclean
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I am afraid this piece merely made me laugh.

"fourteen paintings completed during 2009-2010 using the base material or primal substance of oil paint to create imaginary abstract environments in the manner of the early alchemists"

Surely everyone making an oil painting is using the primal substance of paint to create their artwork. It is just wearsome romanticised drivel to draw such a parallel with alchemy.

"My paintings aim at forming unique visual images that are the result of the process of interacting physically with the material of oil paint."

Well if you don't interact physically with the oil paint, i.e open the tube, you won't have much of a painting. All artists must interact physically with their material otherwise nothing will happen, except in your head.

"The canvas is seen as an arena in which to act."

Another pointless tautology.

This thesis sounds like the tiresome self-justification that most modern artists and critics adopt, a stream of words forming sentences without much content.

There used to be a column in Private Eye, where such
nonsense was posted - Pseuds Corner.

The paintings themselves appear to be tedious Abstract Expressionism. The rich symbolic language and allegorical ideas of the alchemists seem to have been missed by Miss Mayhew.

Last edited on Sun Nov 6th, 2011 06:58 pm by adammclean

Paul Ferguson
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Joined:	Fri Feb 15th, 2008
Location:
Posts:	1538
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adammclean wrote:
I am afraid this piece merely made me laugh.

"fourteen paintings completed during 2009-2010 using the base material or primal substance of oil paint to create imaginary abstract environments in the manner of the early alchemists"

Surely everyone making an oil painting is using the primal substance of paint to create their artwork. It is just wearsome romanticised drivel to draw such a parallel with alchemy.

"My paintings aim at forming unique visual images that are the result of the process of interacting physically with the material of oil paint."

Well if you don't interact physically with the oil paint, i.e open the tube, you won't have much of a painting. All artists must interact physically with their material otherwise nothing will happen, except in your head.

"The canvas is seen as an arena in which to act."

Another pointless tautology.

This thesis sounds like the tiresome self-justification that most modern artists and critics adopt, a stream of words forming sentences without much content.

There used to be a column in Private Eye, where such
nonsense was posted - Pseuds Corner.

The paintings themselves appear to be tedious Abstract Expressionism. The rich symbolic language and allegorical ideas of the alchemists seem to have been missed by Miss Mayhew.

A not entirely unanticipated reaction given Adam's views on (most) modern art! My finger hovered over the Send button for quite some time before committing myself. Posted for the sake of completeness rather than for any other reason.