James Flynn

Hello there, and thank you very much for dropping by again.

I wanted to share with you my thoughts that I have been having just recently. 

But first, in case you haven't seen it already, here is my brand new painting, titled "less is more"....

I hope you like it, I am quite pleased with some of my latest work and I feel I am opening up a lot more just recently. 

As you can see, I tend to leave a very "rough", unfinished look to a lot of my work now, and people have asked me why this is.

And, to be honest, for quite a while I didn't know.  I just thought it kind of looked good.

That is until a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at one of the best paintings I have ever seen.  A painting that was so grand, so epic, that I just couldn't help myself staring at it for a good few minutes.

The painting I am talking about is a piece by Cole Thomas, click on the link below to have a look for yourself.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg

A great painting, i'm sure you will agree.

So what did I realise when I was looking at this painting?  Well, I realised that although this painting is so good, and so polished like so many other works by the old masters, in a way, dare I say it, it is not actually that revealing about the artist.  Because there are no mistakes, or no rough patches there, I cant quite see what the artist's true style is, exept of course..."perfect".

I actually remember thinking once while walking around the national gallery, looking at some classic work, that I would love to see some failed paintings by some of the masters.  I would love to see some paintings that have not worked and have been abandoned, because it would be so interesting to see, it would be very revealing about the artist.

And then it clicked.

That is what appeales to me about leaving a painting with an "unfinished" rough look, it is so revealing.  I like to let people see what goes on behind a painting, and let them see the rough marks, and some of the process behind the finished piece, and that is what I would like to see in a lot of other paintings too.

So this is the direction I am going in at the moment, and hence the title "less is more".  I hope you understand my train of thought on this, and please do not think I am putting down any work that is "finished" if you like, not at all, this is just what is inspiring me at this stage.

So watch this space!  I am not going to hold back with this, I am going to paint exactly what I feel like painting without worrying about whether it fits any kind of criteria, and that is exactly how it should be, shouldn't it?......

Let me know what you think.....

James Flynn