STAIRWAY TO NEVER

Below: Abstract Photo Collage Composition, 2018

Below: Abstract Vector Composition June 2021, based on elements in my painting STEALTH ( 2016 )

Below: Abstract Photo Collage Composition, 2018

[ AIR ] MILEAGE: WORK IN PROGRESS

I just found this unpublished post ( dated 21st April 2017, hence my old logo): It's one of many abstract photo compositions inspired by a stopover at Zurich Airport. Beautiful!

HELLENIC RUINS

Artist's Photographs from September 2018, Paros, Cyclades Islands, Greece

If there's one thing the Greeks are good at, its starting a building and then abandoning it before completion. The example you see here is a particularly striking one, in that it presides over the main coastal road to Paros Kite, the well-known resort populated by kite-surfers during the summer months. The location, size, and assortment of storeys and basements suggests that it was supposed to be a medium-sized tourist hotel, presumably with the intention of capitalising on the influx of surfers from all over the world. I've been going to Paros since the early two-thousands, and it has always been there, ominously occupying a fork in the road like something out of a Stephen King novel. 

To a geometric abstract artist, this kind of structure, with its stark right-angles, exposed staircases and empty voids open to the sky, presents dozens of possibilities for great compositions. It also proves that skilled abstract artists, such as the unknown manual labourers that erected this skeletal structure, exist in all walks of life.

Above: A distinct Rene Magritte atmosphere evoked by the bare structure and blue sky.

Below: A selection of interior shots.

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The experimental piece below was actually inspired by the way in which my iPhone previews the group of photographs in the photo folder.

THOUSAND YARD STAIRWELL

While working to promote the Custard Factory Open Studios recently, I experimented on various background designs for the event's own blog wallpaper ( mobile phone viewers are advised to scroll all the way down to the bottom of any of my blogs and click 'view web version' to see the fully-realised designs ). I have a stock of photos from around the Custard Factory buildings, and used simple repetition ( no actual filters ) to create some eerily surreal images.

2017 ANNUAL REPORT / 1st QUARTER REVIEW

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JANUARY 2017: ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL REMIXES OF ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

Above: Stealth, as a Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

One of the obvious down-sides of creating a painted composition, is that once it's sold, the design is no longer in your hands. In the case of my work, it takes months to finely balance a piece ( it's a form of automatic composition, in that apart from a starting grid, everything is ad-libbed until the picture 'feels' finished ). On that journey, many interesting forms and motifs may evolve. In late 2016 / early 2017, I decided to painstakingly go about re-creating some of my recent paintings in digital 'vector' form. This allows me to do two things: 1 ) Significantly enlarge the composition without loss of quality or pixellation; 2 ) Deconstruct my artwork so that it can be remixed, recoloured and recomposed.

Below: The original Stealth and Encryption, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cm x 60cm

Below: Stealth, as Digital Vector Image ( with texture )

( For more examples of vector experiments, see the link to January 2017, here )

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FEBRUARY 2017: BLISS IN CONCRETE, Acrylic On Canvas, 60cm x 60cm

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MARCH 2017: Up-and-coming American folk singer SYDNEY ROBINSON uses 'WOMAN DISROBING' for her debut digital single artwork.

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TWISTING REALITIES

Real-life: London, St. James's Park, Feb 2017

Digital: Birmingham, Smallbrook Queensway, Oct 2014

SPLITTING INFINITIES [ THE ABSTRACTION OF MODERN TRAVEL ]

Umberto Boccioni, the Italian Futurist, recognised the disconnected psychological, temporal and geographical phases that you experience when travelling. In his 'States of Mind' paintings, he acknowledged three distinct conditions: The Farewell; Those Who Go; and Those Who Stay. 

For me, travel represents nothing but the anxiety of alarm clocks, check-in deadlines, and air turbulence.Therefore, when I have to catch a plane, I will not eat or drink all day, as I'm too paranoid about being in an air crash on a full stomach. Starvation over a long-haul journey inevitably sends the body into shock, and therefore heightens the sense of disorientation, terror, and paranoia. Only when I have achieved this ideal state, do I start thinking like a true artist.

Despite all the negative aspects, travel can still be a pleasure. For example, I'm a huge fan of Switzerland. I love how it's so clean: Clean houses, clean lawns, clean towns, clean mountains. They even have clean air. I go there at every available opportunity, sometimes even for three hours at a time.

The pictures in this series represent another possible addition to Boccioni's 'States' - The Stop-Over.

Source of inspiration, below: Zurich Airport's sparkling concourse and lines of perspective.

My point, is that disorientation inevitably leads to abstraction, and when that occurs you must seize the opportunity to record it.

So, when deciding on a new 'wallpaper' design to go in the background scroll of my pop-culture blog, I remembered all those shiny surfaces in Zurich airport's concourses, and thought that they might be appropriate. For the current edition of my blog, I wanted something dystopian, robotic, sinister and Ridley-Scott-looking.

I have a folder of 'real-life abstract photographs', and I used repetition to see what effects I could achieve. 

Note: No other CG techniques were used. These are unretouched photographs, simply cropped, flipped, and repeated.

Below: One of my first Zurich Airport abstracts, from 2012.

Below: Back in 2012, I must have photographed this logo as a possible inspiration for a future 'Alexi K' logo.

The only thing that bothers me about flying, is being up there and suddenly not flying.

An example of Financial Abstraction, below: 

Hide your billions from your government, and celebrate your good fortune by eating chocolate gold out of a miniature vault.

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Below: The Alexi K 'Smiley Man' logo, inspired by the old Swiss Air 'box logos'. I was aiming for just the right amount of corporate and frivolous.

MORE ABSTRACT LIFE

The best examples from my photo diaries, and more. Click on the links, below. 

Park Life

Fried Brexit ( also, see June 2016 for all Brexit art )

The City of Manchester

Glitching a Ride

All The Best Tunes ( Slayer Fan )

London Underground

Abstract Life: A Kind of Blue

Abstract Life: Arachnophobia