I knew I wanted to recreate an image with the tools that the British Army would have used in surveillance from their watchtowers. So, I looked at the many photographs I had taken of ‘the watchtower’ and started experimenting with different filters. I have used a ‘night vision’ filter on the last (green) image and a ‘solarized’ filter on the rest. Night vision amplifies the light whilst the ‘solarized’ filter, which is similar to the results a thermal vision camera would give, detects temperature change.
As the green/night vision was a definite no go I looked more at the solarized images. I just loved these images and the effects the solarized filter gave them. I didn't want the brightness but I wanted the over exaggerated linear quality and an almost ‘other worldly’ type of feeling to the work. The watchtowers seem so big and commanding and reminded me of the Flash Gorden sets from the 1950’s which I used to watch as a child.
I always work on multiples of work at the same time. I find that I don’t feel so precious about the work when I am concentrating on more than one piece at a time and also I like a ‘continuance’ with the work so that one piece can easily link to another. Coming up in my next blog-
I cut up some linen boards and started experimenting with the solarized images. I used a lot of silica salt in my work back then and found this combination with the oil paint gave a sort of ‘three dimensional’ aspect to the work. The watchtowers had begun…
