Page 10 - Art First: Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: 2014

And with reference to working as an abstract painter, she asserted:
‘the positive aspect of work ing in an abstract way for me, is the freedom
of choice of medium, space, texture, colour. The chal lenge of feeling out
the truth of an idea, a process of inner perception and harmony of thought
on a high level. Abstrac tion is a wide field and is not all necessarily “abstract”.
Abstrac tion is a refinement and greater discipline to the idea; truth to the
medium perfects the idea’.

The squares and cubes, carefully balanced or tumbling into space, either large in form
or clus tered in small multiples, comprise in large part the Order and Disorder works of the
1960s. In Cork and Sand Series (1963,) we see the tumbling arrangement of blocks derived
from pieces of card cast randomly and then nudged as desired into the finished pattern.
The image is made by painting the side of a physical block (wood or perhaps lino) which
is then pressed to the support. When lifted, the paint rises with it, giving the surfaces their
tacky, grainy texture. Dance of Spring (1965) develops this theme, with a sharper definition
of the shapes and a more colourful palette. Family Series (1967), and Lilac Edge (1970), show
how in the later 60s the organ isation of the shapes play off each other to create a myriad
of movements and changing atmospheres.

Simultaneously Barns-Graham started to work with circles or discs, extend ing the potential
for visual play by using whole discs alongside those divided into two hues. Some of the titles
of this period–Wind on Wave Series, Bird in Flight Series for instance–allude to the closeness
Barns-Graham felt with the landscape at large and the titles hint at things directly observed
in nature. Whilst her experience of her surroundings was inspirational, it was always trans -
formed in the studio by the rigour of her practice. Seeing them now, it becomes ever more
evident that Barns-Graham was interested in scientific processes, in the behavior of ele mental
energies within the natural world, and in depicting visual equivalents.

Throughout the 1960s, and beyond, the illusion of space between background and fore -
ground provided the support for the forms that lie closer to the picture surface. In the main,
the back ground spaces are not flat, dead spaces but are enlivened through the careful
modulation of paint layers. A sense of aerial perspective is further enhanced when the back
space is divided, a panel of one hue juxtaposed against another. Lilac Edge (1970), Emerald
and Cadmium Green (1971) and Green and White Discs on Turquoise–Wind on Wave Series (1971)
all illustrate this feature.