Automatism: introduction
In 1939 Colquhoun described her working method: “I need a line to work to…that means a full-sized detailed drawing afterwards traced. Then I put on the opaque colours very smooth and finally the glazes, if any, with the transparent colours.” (1) In other words, she was using the traditional technique of oil painting that consisted of developing the composition through preliminary studies culminating in a cartoon, and then slowly building up the paint structure layer by layer. A number of cartoons and squared drawings still survive.
Shortly after writing this, however, her technique underwent a major change. The impetus for this was a visit she made in the summer of 1939 to André Breton in Paris and then to Chemillieu where she met Roberto Matta and Gordon Onslow Ford. (2) Both these artists were experimenting with automatic methods of painting to find images from within the unconscious which could then be developed or interpreted, if desired, through more conscious means.
Following this visit she began to make extensive use of automatic techniques herself. This change was as much philosophical as it was technical. Rather than being pre-planned and premeditated, her art became more spontaneous, making use of chance effects and random processes. From smooth surfaces from which all traces of brushstrokes were minimised, textural features, blots, smudges and stains now became an integral part of her work.
Notes
1. Colquhoun, I. What do I need to paint a picture? London Bulletin, No. 17, 15th June 1939. p.13. Reprinted in: P Rosemont (ed) Surrealist Women. University of Texas Press, Austin, 1998.
2. Hiekisch-Picard, S. 2006. Gordon Onslow Ford the Formative Years: Paintings from the 1930s and 1940s. San Francisco: Weinstein Gallery.
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