Latest posts by michael wilson (see all)
- JORDAN RIVER - February 5, 2019
- Inspired Art - August 2, 2018
- Waiting for Inspiration - July 31, 2018
- The Bridge between Painting and Photography - July 31, 2018
The method of drag painting goes much further than merely describing the physical process of constructing the frames and manipulating the paint on the hard, panel surface. If it was just a mechanical method, just another device then this would not, of course, be worth pursuing. It is true that what I was after were the accidents, in the beginning. We might call them ‘planned accidents’ of pigment. It turned out to be a unique means to create a sense of accident, where not every nuance was defined and specified. Within certain bounds, anything might happen. Yes, I placed the pigment, I chose the colors, I elected where they might be positioned as so forth…but it can never be known just how all of that becomes manifested once the pressure of the squeeze is applied. Something is created. A brilliant new effect is now brought to life. There is a kind of radiance to the whole process and that is one reason I repeatedly am drawn back to it.
Beyond all of that physicality, all of those creative dynamics came a new dimension – at least for me. It was a dimension that would typically lay hidden in the original drag background (see the recent video by Charles). The psychology unfolded for me very slowly. I hardly recognized it, maybe I didn’t realize it enough to call it anything…to define the disclosure. It did seem to me a type of disclosure and as far as I was concerned it was a calculated one that was lying there waiting to be discovered. I don’t know how else to describe it but call it a psychological phenomena. In garden work, we plant one thing and something very predictable comes out of the earth as a plant from that seed. In the kind of abstract, non- relational drag -painting I am here discussing, highly dependent on the ‘planned accident’, something entirely new is discovered and we could just as easily say manifested because they occur at exactly the same moment. 
The physcology then has to do with the process the artist goes through when he has set the background up on the easel. It is dry now and often has a sheen due to the enamels often used for large panels. The entire thing had been dragged. I had pressed very hard on the surface in different, odd directions. I had applied some overlays randomly but thoughtfully. This then represented the background. In study however certain elements became noticeable. There were hints, traces and suggestions of certain elements. They might be a certain mood, a certain reflection, a type of landscape or even a type of thought pattern. They were recognizable. To bring them out and make them more apparent I now take a brush and paint and with careful attention to the correct hue (one that corresponds to the background painting) paint various enhancements. Those so-called suggestions that I see become little by little more developed. This is the other, vital element to the ‘Method of Drag Painting’.
THe need for great care here is evident. The second over-lay painting must in all cases correspond and relate and balance with the background – one must enhance and enliven the other. There are two paintings entertwined. They become one immutable whole. The means to this is making all those visual discoveries and patterns. Often it is just patterns and sometimes those patterns are only in one small area of the painting. So we work on that and then move to the other area – what is happening there, what needs to be drawn out and enhanced? This is the great vitality that lies under and is a base for this kind of abstract, non-realistic, illusory method of painting. We can easily say that it is the combination of both the un-conscious and the conscious – that kind of metering, that relationship that creates the necessary balance so that we see the painting ultimately as a whole. Even if fragments are clearly evident, they relate to each other by hue, contrast and the blending of the second painting to the semi-accidents of the background painting.