I’ve just returned from the opening of Martin Cosgrove’s exhibition at Bradford Cathedral. Although I’ve known Martin for some time this is the first occasion on which I have had a chance to see his work, and to hear him talk about it. He paints semi-abstract landscapes in rather intense colours. “I’m a bit of a Fauve,” he told me.
One thing I did find interesting about his pictures is the very pronounced sense of a textured surface. (He works largely with a palette knife.) Seeing his material, and hearing him speak so enthusiastically about it, I did find a rather unsettling experience. I have spent a good part of the day thinking about a new project, and I had fallen unconsciously into assuming that this would be executed in pastels….my preferred medium. Now I find myself reviewing that automatic assumption. Would it be good to return to work with paint, as I did in the Italian series? I worked a good deal with a sense of texture there. On that occasion, however, the textured surface emerged directly and naturally from the subject-matter. Why might it have a place in this new project?
So, all the way home in the car I’ve been stewing these thoughts, starting to think again what is the point of this new project, and how that might best be served by the choice of medium and support. I hope it doesn’t keep me awake tonight. Whether it does or not, there is evidently still a good deal of work to be done, and probably several experiments, before I launch out for real.