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Dutch Courage wasn’t always necessary. A series of abstruse spirals performed in a disused factory in Vauxhall, South London – gave rise to these undersea creatures, the likes of which Jacques Cousteau would have been happy to witness. The purpose? Again, to look at the ‘none mark’, the counterspace instead of the mark itself as an invasion of a ‘virgin’ white field of 100% cotton. Instead I made white marks on a black ground. The same mark, repeated, again and again.

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Painting in acrylics on canvas by Alan Dedman

This morning I woke with U2’s ‘Sunday, Bloody, Sunday’ playing on the radio station in my head. I’m not a U2 fan and I’m not so interested in the politics of the past  – however, we live in a culture where we keep one eye firmly on the wake of the ship rather than looking ahead (for new land), because we believe that the future is or is likely to be a continuation of the past. That is what happens here and in the making of any conventional artwork. You look at what is unfolding and you adjust it accordingly. Any looking to the future is the visualisation you have in your ‘mind’s eye’. This itself might be likened more to archaeology, where what we are doing is uncovering what lies within, by the processes of art – but it is also an act of forming, creating, putting together in the ‘now’.

‘The big liberation’ as I called it after John Holden passed comment, was done in an effort to try working freely on a bigger scale. Not knowing what I was going to do, I made a 2m x 1.5m canvas and bought some household paints. At 11 in the morning I went to the Glass Blower on the Regent’s Street side of Soho and took some Dutch courage (a bad habit). Then I did this, with some whacking great brushes. The play of black and white marks is what set in train my interest in the foregoing and some other works, where I was taking a much closer look at ‘the mark’. This itself originated during the process of life drawing at the Royal Academy Schools.

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Painting by Alan Dedman, done in 1986

This pic is a close up of the previous one, showing how the impasted oil paint on black velvet has formed specific marks. Reminiscent of scenes I witnessed on the ceiling of our squat in South London whilst in a state of intoxicated reverie, (or does it just look like Artex?) this work is what we all have to do to expand our awareness of ourselves ‘in process’. I suppose Robert Ryman’s work owes a debt itself to Kasimir Malevich ….

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White spirals on velvet by Alan Dedman

This is one of several circular works I did in the 90’s in reaction to all that had gone before in my drawing. Not square, not a black mark on white – but a white mark on black (velvet), I looked at the counterspace in an outward spiral which I made repeatedly until the surface was returned to a state of lingerie whiteness. Again, the function in an academic sense, is to see the line anew. One metre diameter, oil on black velvet, 1500 gbp.

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Line drawing by Alan Dedman

This is a drawing I did in coloured pencils at 70, Fentiman Road in the Summer of 1986. I used a kids colouring book and took tracings of the gymnast (which is what it is called) and then drew ‘automatically’ over the line work, making it the sole purpose of the drawing NOT to lick my top lip whilst colouring carefully up to the outline.

This drawing is about not conforming to pre-existing definitions, about being with all that irrascible feeling; like the gymnast. Getting line to equate with colour is one of the academic bugbears of the Western art tradition. The drawing is A3 in size and sold for 75 gbp. For further examples of my art see: www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk

The Gymnast by Alan Dedman, 1986, Coloured pencil & kids colouring book.

This is one of several drawings I did of Susanna, a model Eric Luke supplied for us to draw during our first year at St. Martin’s. She was American and she was a lovely shape – voluptuous. Along with Trevor Willoughby, Eric Luke (who studied at the Royal Academy Schools whilst Peter Greenham was Keeper) encouraged a lively line style and quick engagement with the model. I liked drawing Susanna.

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Susanna: drawn by Alan Dedman at St. Martin's School of Art

Here is a sketch of a beautiful model. I always start with a person’s face, male or female. The face is the key to the idiosyncracies of each individual physique. It contains the greatest coalescence of the Phi ratio in the human form. From here, the rest of the figure will unfold. I liked this person’s face, her pout, her ‘pedigree’ looks, for want of a better way of saying it. See: www.alan-dedman-artist.co.uk for further examples.

Life model at the Academy Schools sketched by Alan Dedman

Another one of Anna: this time with arms raised, looking ahead, reclining. It is fun to look back on sketches, at what they convey and record. Here she looks young and lovely. She was relaxing on the grass at Fowey in Cornwall, the sun was shining and she was happy. Not all drawing/sketching has to be serious, but to capture moments like these you do have to be quick on the draw!

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Anna in Fowey sketched by Alan Dedman

You should draw from life, not photo’s. Use photo’s for reference by all means, but use your own brain, hands and eyes to work out what something looks like. I say this to all you London Art College students of mine and other students who are getting pleasing results from using photo’s.

A photo is an image cast onto a flat plane: images in the retina of our eyes are cast onto a concave surface and the resulting perspective is known as artistic or naturalistic perspective. Camera or mechanical perspective is what you get with photo’s. Whether post-modernism says anything goes or not, as a learner about art, you should practice the time honoured skills that make up art activity as we know it. That way you will become stronger.

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Anna laughing sketched by Alan Dedman