Colour theory, Social Devolution and Ludditism in Fine Art
Katrina Blannin is an artist interested in the realm of colour theory in the practical aspects of painting and creation. Having recently completed her practice-based PhD in Painting in 2021 on colour systems, her work focuses on the core principles of art and how a historic painting can be stripped down to it’s core elements and still make contextual and thematic sense. She has curated and shown in many shows and artist run spaces and published several articles on abstract art. I personally know her as an associate lecturer in the first year cohort of BA Fine Art Painting and it’s wonderful to review her work and creative ideologies as she takes her own stage.
Her research was heavily influenced by her lecturers insistence on practice being followed by research and thus coming up for the questions for her PhD. She continued as she did with her practice and decided to look through historical paintings of the old masters type works rather than the more modernist resources she normally relied on; she investigated the relationship between historical painting and abstraction in terms of geometric structures, diagrammatic drawing and colour systems. By looking at mathematics of the the Raphaelites and DaVinci paintings and their use of concepts like the golden ratio and the fibonacci sequence, she was able to create a multitude of works decrypting the composition of those old paintings and rewriting them in a new, modern visual language. Whilst her practical focus does rely on the mathematical and formulaic processes that her colour studies follow, she is insistent, almost aggressively, on the physical labour of her process. Discussions following the lecture roamed from computer assisted works to AI and how it takes away from the almost meditative state of creation and the actual soul of the paintings.
This insistence is actually what prompted my query into Ludditism and social devolution for this essay. The ‘rage against the machine’ type meandering reminded me of those hours spent staring wide eyed into the TV, with Horrible Histories episodes playing nonstop, especially the ones that looked at the industrialisation of the weaving industry and how it harmed the populations whom it purported to support at the hands of the businessmen who sought to standardise their factory products and line their bottomless pockets. The difference in quality of clothes from then and now is strikingly obvious when you take into account the rapid decline in quality control checks [as can be seen by Aran jumpers clearly outlined in this video essay by: …]. The same theory of devolution can be applied to the wider crafts industry and can also be seen in the fine art world as well. The revelation of social media has opened new doors in terms of helping artists build and reach their customer base but the Arms Race of digital innovation has birthed a whole new industrial monster; AI generators for public use. We can already see the repercussions on creatives through the introduction of NFTs and art theft due to stolen feeder networks training the generators on the years of efforts of artists trying to perfect their craft.
Coming back to colour theory and Blannin’s research, the practical nature of her work is reliant on the ability to apply her physical memory of shape language and colour forms. Talking about the texture of her work, you can clearly see the effort she puts into testing the mathematic ability of the human hand and how it can interpret and reformat the environment around it into another visual language; an analogue method to represent a computerisable process. A language that she refers to as a form of Modernism. Whilst she doesn’t herself agree with the mid 20th century ideology of a universal language that everyone should strive to, it has its merits of accessibility and global unity; but the devolutionary stance in hindsight was a house-fire in the making, with its reductionist concept most likely heading towards ghettoisation of any form of cultural uniqueness - a dystopia not unlike that of the Capitol. This radical ‘inside-the-box’ thinking that ran rife in the 80s in abstract expressionism is what Blannin is probably grateful to have been left in the past as her current practice of mixed media, not being a colour purist abstract painter, looking at multiple art movements and reinterpreting paintings in a different format would have ostracised her as a creative and had her practice shunned. If anything, I think the rejection of her belief systems regarding what painting could be as well as Society’s rejection of what painting belongs under what label has offered her and us alike a freedom that has endeared her process of experimentation and exploration of colour theory and practice.
Additionally, going back to the young but vast life of the Abstract Expressionism Movement, considering how the concept of abstraction is no longer a new thing, the burden of creation is a lot lighter on her considering the large knowledge base behind her that she can use as a sounding board when trying to explore new themes and visual colour experiments. She’s spoken of recently delving into more synthetic looking pigments to give a brighter feeling to her current work. When questioned by the students of what was the necessity of artists doing mathematical work when computers can do it faster, she spoke of her personal inclination towards the physicality in the creation process. There’s a Luddite in her - physicality is inherently important to her creation process and she does not believe in the artistic and creative labels being put on AI [like AI art as nothing is original there] but the analogue methods still loop back to futuristic designs of pixelations. Her lecturer said at the beginning of her PhD, “if you’re gonna spend a long time on a painting, it’s gotta have something to start with .” Her selections are not totally random - there’s something that attracts her on a mathematical scale currently. She is not sure whether this might be her be all and end all process. She might continue or change process but she always liked the idea of making everything for herself.
As an end note, whilst abstraction is not calling to me like realism is not calling to her, it’s nice to aim for that creative assurance that she gets with her career and academic experiences. TLDR: I wanna be like her when I grow up!
