Megan Chapman's Studio Blog: A question of chemistry

Friday, May 20, 2011

A question of chemistry

I thought I would find you here
© 2011 Megan Chapman and Stewart Bremner
Mixed Media on Canvas
60x48"

If you read my blog last week, you will know that I had just begun a collaborative painting with Scottish artist Stewart Bremner, who is visiting Fayetteville to show his and Craig Munro's joint photography exhibition iteration/span currently on display at the Hive Gallery in the Fayetteville Underground. Our painting collaboration didn't exactly happen as we had hoped for, it started out more along the lines of a unnecessarily complicated dance that neither one of us knew the steps to. After our rocky start we talked about the process and the steps to take in the future and then smartly we walked away from the painting and the studio for a few days.

When we returned to the studio to view our work, we were happily surprised to find a painting that we could both be proud of, a painting that we could see each other in and yet something that was definitely a fusion of our two styles. We made a few more small changes and decided to call it done, photograph it and get it on the gallery wall as soon as possible! It was a wonderful rush, a thrill I have not exactly felt before. Once on the wall in the back Vault gallery of the Fayetteville Underground, we just sat in front of the work. We sat there simply absorbing the large painting. I was a bit speechless. To me, the large 5x4 foot work felt like a magnet, I was drawn to the stillness of all the white and to the complexity of all the layers and colors within the painting. It was a wonderful moment and one that I will not soon forget. We declared ourselves victorious and at that moment we knew we had more work within us that we had to create together.

This past week Stewart and I have completed three more works in our collaborative series, A question of chemistry. Here are those works. We are excited about the direction the series is taking and simply the act of painting together and being able to share our works with you. There are more works in the series planned. Stay tuned...