Art on the wall: my love of physical media in art

My desire is to produce paintings to go on walls or a diptych on a table. It’s a tactile object, not digital. Digital imagery is throw away. There’s so much of it the impact is mostly lost among the deluge. 

It’s how I feel about books; a real hardcopy book is better than say blog posts. It has that sense of longevity that an ebook or blog post doesn’t have. On the Web, everything is too fleeting, to uncertain. 

I want my art to be tactile, a feast for the eyes, colour, form, and texture. It’s the physicality of traditional art that draws me. 

The tactile sensation of traditional media, especially those mediums like oil and acrylic, where you can delight in the physical stuff of paint, pigments, objects, tools, textures is what draws me. The canvas, or paper is like a playground of expression.

There’s a part of me that wants to lick the palette knife.

The physical act of creating is something that appeals to me. Sitting in front of a computer doesn’t compare to engaging with material, brushes, and expressiveness with the body. It makes me feel more engaged and connected to what I’m painting. More intuitive, less head orientated.

The other thing is it gets me away from looking at a screen all the time. I did that far too much when I younger. 

The artist leaves their presence, their mark in physical art.

Traditional art appeals to me because it’s a touch based art, full of sensory delights in the fingertips, the eyes and the emotions.