Rose Wylie: How Ageing Frees The Inner Girl

"Working, as I do, on unstretched canvas," says Wylie, "allows for any extension I feel like. I painted the groom first and then had to fit the bride's face to the one I'd given Philip. What I call my Dürer woodcut look. You can see her face was a bother to do – there are many hidden versions under the collage bit."

Rose Wylie is a british artist who works everyday on large unstretched canvas. Wylie's work is best understood in the context of conventional art history, which she studied at the Royal College of Art from 1979 to 1981, because her art is, like most art, about art. She paints as an escapee from the academy, who has returned to untaughtness in an effort to recapture spontaneity, though everything she does is the tribute of a wayward pupil to that academy. When she paints a figure and labels it "in the manner of Signorelli", it may look to the untrained eye nothing like Signorelli, but someone who knows what makes Signorelli different from other members of the Tuscan school will get what she means. Wylie's grasp of composition is complete, which is why she will often alter the shape of the canvas; it is also surreptitious. When I visited her in Kent, I asked her whether she was consciously rebellious. She slightly pulled a face and said: "Not consciously." We both laughed. We talked about ageing, about how ageing frees the inner girl, and how bad that girl can be. There is anger in her work, anger about the kind of art teaching that makes most kids give up making art, or turns their individual ways of seeing into A-levels.

Further read: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/jul/09/germaine-greer-rose-wylie-artist

Conrad Jon Godly’s Mountain Paintings Drip from the Canvas

When looking at Swiss painter Conrad Jon Godly’s mountainous paintings, it takes a moment to truly appreciate the incredible skill behind what seems to be such an effortless application of paint. Up close the landscapes appear to be a thick, almost random mix of blue, white and black, the result oils mixed with turpentine to create a thick impasto that Godly often leaves dripping from the canvas. Take a few steps back (or just squint your eyes a bit) and miraculously you might as well be looking at a photograph of the Swiss Alps. It’s a visual trick that the artist has perfected in both small and large-scale paintings over the last few years.

Godly studied as a painter at the Basel School of Art from 1982 until 1986, but then worked as a professional photographer for 18 years. He only returned to painting in 2007 and it would seem his photographic work has had a subtle influence on his abstract painting. The artist most recently had exhibitions at Gallery Luciano Fasciati and Tony Wuethrich Gallery in Switzerland, and you can see many more paintings on his website. (viaOEN, A Wash of Black)