Don’t Document; Design

Some part of my brain has always been into rules and systems.

I’ve always jotted little notes while painting. Things like last weeks bon mots “Don’t Document; Design!” or “Change Plane = Change Temperature.” I like it when I come away with a new theory to field test for a while. I’ll push a rule a little further each time until I’ve found the limit of it’s usefulness.

Sometimes a thing is in my head for long enough and gets internalized – sometimes I decide it’s an edge case that’s not going in the book.

So here we have the old Presbyterian college at McGill (now the department of Islamic studies). It’s quite a complex structure. Lots of unusual angles. Many bits and bobs. Possibly, a fun, expressive drawing wasn’t the perfect match for this place? Or who knows, maybe they need to lighten up in there.

Anyway, here I’m seeing how far I’m willing to go with expressively inaccurate drawing and pushing temperature shifts all the way to complementary colors. The jury is still out. Maybe I went too far. Maybe not far enough. More experiments are required.

Next post — the take away is: “Select/Deselect”.