24 Hours and Counting!

In her last guest blog for Quint this week in advance of her solo exhibition, artist/illustrator and Quint Collective member, MJ Hodge talks about the landscapes that inspire her dream-like 'reverse glass' painting.

Her solo exhibition will be at Conway Hall, London click here for details on their site

18th - 24th April 2015

www.mjhodge.co.uk

@mjhodgeart

The Land: Looking Glass Landscapes

In the early days of the Croatian Naive the artists were all peasant-painters. Poor farmers tilling the soil for their families’ survival, encouraged to paint the hardship of their daily lives as a way of showing the world the harsh reality of their existence through a self-taught art. As a result, the early paintings of the tradition are bleak: dour in colour, depressing in content, forceful in representing deprivation, oppression, hopelessness and death.

Such art is powerful, but it can be hard on a soul that longs for more. And so, when I look at the evolution of the Croatian Naive I can see how those painters, first encouraged to paint ‘what they saw,’ might begin to paint the world in more expressive ways - interpreting it through memory and with longing. Until they were no longer painting the hard winters outside of their windows only, but the blossom filled springs that haunted their dreams.

Leading, over time, to the land and landscapes which had been backgrounds to the ploughs, peasants and drama of earlier paintings, taking on greater prominence and evolving into interpreted and imagined landscapes that owed more to the artist’s imagination than to the view outside their door.

At the time I was first introduced to the Croatian Naive, I knew nothing of this however. All I knew was that in encountering Ivica’s bird and butterfly landscapes for the first time I felt the possibilities of landscape painting like I’d never felt them before. From being an illustrator of animals and figures, I felt for the first time the deep pull of a tree’s roots and the onward draw of painting the far horizon. Perhaps it was the whimsy of the wings that spoke to me, or perhaps it was the sorrow in the bird’s eye - but the need to explore the landscapes that mean the most to me through spiral, flower, fine detail, colour, totem and stretching sky has influenced my work ever since.

In addition, Ivica’s own garden and his tending of that garden have given me a greater insight into the practical needs of the peasant-painters who balanced their painting lives with seasonal tasks. To paraphrase Ivica when I asked why he did so little painting in the summer, ‘I have been in the garden digging because it needs to be done and the sun is warm. The paintings will wait.’ Words which continue to send me out into the garden every spring and summer, to practice patience and feed my soul in a different way.

And every year, this seasonal shift reminds me that while my painted landscapes may owe more to my imagination than the view outside my window, it is only by regularly walking into the land outside my door and by digging my fingers into the warm earth under a summer sun that I am kept rich in the inspiration needed to paint my glass bright all the winter long.

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015 

ALICE IN WONDERLAND IS 150 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR. CELEBRATE WITH MJ HODGE AT HER ALICE INSPIRED SOLO EXHIBITION THIS WEEKEND!

18TH-24TH APRIL

CONWAY HALL, LONDON

WWW.MJHODGE.CO.UK

Here's today's guest blog from the wonderful artist and illustrator MJ Hodge. We're proud to have her as a Quint Collective member!

That Alice Girl

I do not think of myself as a self-portrait kind of a person and yet many of my recent paintings have one small, fair-haired girl in common: adventuring far, reaching towards the horizon and meditating into unknown distances.

She is not a specific character I set out to paint nor was she intended to represent myself; in some cases she is most definitely not the person I’d intended to paint. Which has made me query my painting process from the initial spark of inspiration to the finished end: trying to understand how my unconscious impulses combine with instinctive intuition to subvert, high jack and otherwise override my more conscious choices.

Usually I am happy with the organic process of my work, allowing cumulative, evolutionary surprises to catch me off guard as I ‘feel’ my way towards each line, shape and colour as it is ‘best, now and in this moment.’ In fact, until this moment I’ve cheerfully ignored any self-analysis, but now I am curious:

If I never intended to paint myself (I didn’t), and I never set out to paint a narrative that carried the same character from series to series (again, no), then who exactly have I been painting these last many months?

I have wandered many a musing path since asking this question, and in the end I think I have an answer of sorts ...

She can not be any specific girl, however she might just be a spirit girl - full of possibility and wonder - just at that magical age when we begin to explore the world with increased independence. More Jungian than Brother’s Grimm, she crosses the glass threshold and brings us with her.

Innocent in some ways and wise in others, she is a reminder towards staying curious and keeping our minds open. She is the very best part of the time before dreams separated from reality. And while there have been no rabbit holes or magic mirrors, in hindsight she is the perfect guide to take us through a looking glass.

A place where things are truest in their mirror reflection; where the rules of perspective, laws of physiology and the focusing power of shadows can be ignored; where worlds may be painted out of season, landscapes out of place, and stories out of time. A dreamscape where the stars touch the earth, waves caress the sky, solitude is company and adventure beckons from both near and far horizons, even as you’re standing still.

You can call her Alice if you like.  

After all, she's gone through the looking glass and we are still standing here.

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015

MJ HODGE AT CONWAY HALL THIS APRIL!!

18TH - 24TH APRIL

Conway Hall, London

www.mjhodge.co.uk

Here's our second guest blog from artist and illustrator MJ Hodge about the inspiration and process behind her remarkable 'reverse glass' paintings. Melanie is writing exclusively for Quint this week about her work in the run up to her solo exhibition at Conway Hall, London, this weekend.
Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, spread the word and get along!

The Tradition: Grounded in the Croatian Naive

The Croatian Naive began as an experiment in 1929 when an Academy trained and early proto-type of the artist-activist, Krsto Hegedušić, encouraged boys in the village of Hlebine ‘to paint what they saw.’ In the decades following the artists moved from canvas to painting on glass and three further generations of artists have taken the Croatian Naive from the bleakness of subsistence farming to the edges of surrealism and back again, via the cutting edges of pop art and massive auction successes. Today though the Croatian Naive is a fading tradition and the artists nearly forgotten.


For me, however, the Croatian Naive began the day I first visited the studio of the Naive painter, Ivica Fišter. Despite my poor and haphazard Croatian language skills, he introduced me to the basic techniques of the medium and then encouraged me to learn more about the tradition and other artists. Through Ivica I met Katarina Krvarić who, after Ivica, has had the profoundest impact on my work. Together, with the artist Željko Seleš, these three artists have shaped who I am as an artist and how I work on a daily basis.


In addition to a warm welcome and encouragement as I started learning more about the tradition, the Croatian Naive has offered me an iconography of visual motifs which have inspired me and which continue to appear in my own works even though I have no memory of borrowing them intentionally. From over-sized flowers blossoming out of season, to animal totems and landscapes re-imagined before my eyes, the Croatian Naive opened my eyes to a new way of looking at the world and gifted me the means with which I might express myself more fully.


Lastly, the Croatian Naive has given me a personal history grounded in a wider picture: like the early peasant-painters I received very little training in the technique and from early on was told to find my own answers to the questions I asked. Like them too I have been inspired by the foothills, vineyards, mountains and islands of the Croatian landscape, and I have used those views as the springboard for my own imagined and interpreted dreamscapes. And in a twist of fate that felt like a homecoming, and which was discovered only after the fact, I too hung my first exhibitions on the walls of the Ullrich family gallery - only 75 years on from those first Naive painters.


It is in all of these ways that I am grounded in the Croatian Naive: in the technique, the tradition and a shared history; in the land and landscape; in how I approach my work and tend my garden; in my appreciation of a supportive arts community; and in a shared aesthetic that travels across generations. For me, the Croatian Naive is a living and lively conversation and my paintings are just the next line of dialogue, waiting to happen.


creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS...

This week we're delighted to be bringing you a series of guest blogs from Quint-Collective member, MJ HODGE, in advance of her upcoming solo exhibition of fantastical art and illustrations. 

We love MJ's work, full of hope, aspiration and playfulness. We'll let Melanie explain the process.

18th-24th April

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL

www.mjhodge.co.uk 

For more details follow MJ Hodge - Art & Illustration on Facebook and Instagram

The Technique: Reverse Glass Painting

Beginning with a clean piece of ordinary window glass, the artist starts by signing their name - backwards.

Following the signature, the artist next paints the finest, foreground details. Once the paint is dry, more details, layers and background motifs can be added. A second layer of paint may also be added for richness of tone. This process is repeated until the artist is satisfied or has run out of glass.

Usually, but not always, the artist works with a sketch under the glass. I sometimes draw it twice: first as it looks in ‘real life’ and as it should appear in the final painting, and then tracing it onto a transparent plastic sheet which I can flip over. Once flipped I am able to view the image in it’s mirror reflection and check it for balance and secret symmetries.

When I first started in this technique I was told that reverse glass painting is not for the impatient. And it’s true. The Croatian Naive has influenced not only the way I paint, but also impacted on how I approach almost every aspect of my creative work as I’ve learned my patience the hard way.

To begin with, nothing can be rushed. Oil paints can take anywhere from three days to two weeks to dry, depending on their pigment and viscosity. This can be a bonus as I lay down brushes for the school run, but it also means that very little can be done ahead of the previous layer’s drying time.

Next, it takes a steady hand to paint everything from the pin-prick details to writing my name backwards. This is particularly true of the stars which I paint over many hours, across many days, with a cocktail stick. But it also means, that when it’s time for a pause, I stop. I know that forcing any part of the painting to happen faster only leads to heartbreak.

Therefore most of my paintings take a minimum of six months before they are finished and dry enough for me to step away from them for the first time to see the full effect. That moment is absolute magic - for until that moment I really don’t know what kind of painting I’ve created or if I’ll even like it.

Some paintings can take longer though, particularly if there are many galaxies of stars: for ‘Naive Dreamer’ I spent over 40 hours just painting the stars. And some paintings take years: I started painting my ‘Seeking Harmony’ series in 2011 but only finished them in 2014 after a long break. In my studio I have sketches for paintings that date back to 2010, still waiting for their chance to reflect on the world. 

creativeCroatia - bringing contemporary Croatia to London in 2015