Ivon Hitchens
Looking at Ivon Hitchens' work is what inspired me for my project. The colours he chooses to depict the landscape is what I found most exciting, and I wanted to reflect that in my work. In order to achieve a similar variety and choice of colours I had to go and buy some more paints because the colours I used in painting 1 didn't give the same effect that Hitchens' do.
Patrick Heron describes one of Hitchens' landscapes; "The tree is paint and paint is the tree". This comment made me realise that although his work is depicting a natural landscape, he is also depicting a landscape of colour and paint, which is just as important. This became the main criteria behind my work. I practiced painting with different objects (pieces of wood/metal/polystyrene) in order to create these different textures. Painting 1 had the most texture, but was almost to 'busy' with that, and the many colours. For the other paintings shown I used fewer, but more vibrant colours and less areas of texture which was more effective.
The 'confusion which is perception, in the making of a new actuality which takes the works beyond their subjects'. I feel this statement implies that his abstracted landscapes can sometimes be hard to work out, but it is the colours and gestures that guide you to how the painting makes you feel, and so your perception of it is taken further than just what you see depicted. I wanted the landscapes I painted to be subjective, and so the viewer creates their own landscape.
'It is not just the subject, but the problem that the subject sets which is so fascinating'. This links to my main idea of figuring out what you think you see in the paintings below (paintings 1, 2, 3). What the viewer sees may be different to the scene I have painted, however their perception of it, is what's interesting; it makes it more personal, and suggests that the work is less about the subject, and more about the colour and texture.
'He asks for our active engagement in the exploration of the surface and the depths of each painting'. Like Hitchens, I abstracted my landscapes in order for the viewer to focus on the texture and colour more closely.

Overall I think I managed to develop a strong concept behind my project from looking at Hitchens' work without creating work too similar to his.


Picture 1









Picture 2














Picture 3










Bibliography
Ivon Hitchens Forty-Five Paintings. (1989). London: Serpentine Gallery.
Hitchens, I. (1993). Ivon Hitchens. London (12 & 34 Cork St., W1): Waddington Galleries.