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I watched this video as background research on you Tube by George Melly from 1978

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The Secret Life of Edward James (1978): Presented by George Melly

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Reproduction Print of Salvador Dali's Sketch of Edward James, behind the Lobster Telephone

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Reproduction Print of Salvador Dali's Sketch of Edward James, behind the Lobster Telephone

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Sarah Hughes had given us a history of West Dean and the Edward James Foundation. I learned that Edward had stopped publishing his poetry in is own name after a severe critic of his first book. It seemed to me Edward had been silenced, so I was keen to understand more about him. The house, although full of beautiful objects, seemed absent of any paintings/sculptures of Edward James, other than a reproduction of a preparatory sketch by Salvador Dali behind the Lobster telephone. Edward seemed to have been silenced in West Dean House too.

I had asked Hugh Morris to see the original but was unable to organise this. I chose the sketch as my object.

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The sketch was prepared by Salvador Dali it was a study for a portrait of Edward James 1936, began in Ravello Italy and finished in Port Ligate Spain ( A Surreal Life: Edward James 1907-1984, The Royal Pavilion Libraries and Museum, Brighton & Hove, 1998)

I wanted to find out more about Edward James , to understand what the photo did not tell me. Who was the man in the sketch that had established West Dean as a centre for the Arts.

I read two of three books to include

The Heart and The Word - A Selection of Poems by Edward James, George Weiderfield & Nicholson 1987.

A Surreal Life Edward James 1907-1984, The Royal Pavilion Libraries and Museum, Brighton & Hove, 1998

I wanted to understand his poetry and life story. I did not really warm to his poetry other than the "Last Sonnet" written before his death.

His life was a number of distinct phases and he seemed disillusioned and disappointed with life , people and the use of his wealth, until he got to Mexico where he seemed to find a place to be himself and have genuine relationships.

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My first idea was to look at expanding one of the incomplete drawings and use either some of Edwards James Poetry or my own words in the composition. I wanted to use an incomplete drawing as it seemed to be that Edward James was an incomplete individual. I also felt the picture should be a sliced view as I would only be representing a view of a complex and varied character.

I was considering a green background, as Edward had referred to the Green Gloom in his Last Sonnet . Gardens seemed important to him. At this stage I was focused on the representing the drawing of Edward James but in a alternative way with words.

I spent quite a while thinking of associated words, when looking at the poetry.

I was focused on Edward.

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During the Tutorial we discussed various artists that use words in their art, including;

Tacita Dean

David Shrigley

Fiona Banner

Jenny Holsen

Tracey Emin

Barbera Groger

When I looked at these artists , I liked the idea of less words rather than more and started to look at a series of words that would describe phases of Edward James life.

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Initial Idea - Scaling up on on the images in pencil on cartridge paper

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Initial Idea - Scaling up on on the images in pencil on cartridge paper

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This is my first pass at a replication of the image using scaling. Pencil on Cartridge paper

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First Idea - Increasing the Scale of the Drawing 

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First Idea - Increasing the Scale of the Drawing 

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I increased the scale of the drawing and then used Indian Ink on the drawing to give a more intense image

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I tried a couple of backgrounds in a pale green with watercolour and then with a much stronger brilliant green ink . It seemed to me that the stronger background seemed to create a stronger image.

I wanted to try Egg Tempura and used this media to create a rich green background.

I really liked the Egg Tempura and had planned to use this to transfer the image too.

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I had lost some of my time due to picking up a nasty virus but was pushing on the picture I initially thought of, only really needing the words , style and positioning. In conversation with Tabatha it was obvious that the idea was coming over as a copy of the image and some words.

With only a week to go, I was somewhat concerned. then in a moment I looked at one of my test painting sheets and thought I think I prefer this. It looks like code.

I took some time out soul searching and just emptying my thoughts on to paper. I looked at "Asemic" writing of Henri Michaux as advised by Tabatha. I also tried Automatic writing with the use of channelling.

The experience made me really ask my self what I was responding to. Having now read about Edward James, I don't have much in common with a very wealthy, eccentric white man, who really could do anything he wanted to. I did however have the experience of being silenced and this is how I came up with a different idea.

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I looked at creating the same image but using text to draw

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I looked at creating the same image but using text to draw

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Using some of ideas from Artists I considered using the text I had written as the means of creating the image - I did not feel this would work

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Using words for with image after TA turorial

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The main thought I came back to was that the response to the picture of Edward James was that as a woman I had been silenced in my life too.

The message converted to morse code is " women across the world continue to be silenced stop". It took a number of attempts to plan out the size of the image and layout in accordance with morse code, protocols. I used an on line morse code generator, and have saved the audio file too.

The next consideration was the medium I have chosen to paint with egg tempura as I so liked the result on the green background. I did consider whether this should be a black and white image, should the stop be in red.

In the end I decided on colours as a nod to Edwards James colour code writing and also that the topic is not just black and white in relevance.

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Reference was made to some quotes from Virginia Woolf in relation to the silence in art. I also read this book to understand more and of course a picture does not always give away the full narrative. Many of the objects in a art work are silent.

West Dean itself and the objects in it have laid as silent watchers of the past and present. With any picture there is an interpretation. This was brought home to be especially with the exercise we did with Michelle Ussher in relation to describing the art work, and what the subject, composition and objects in the picture could tell us as the observer

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Oh, To Be A Painter! by Virginia Woolf & Claudia Tobin - 9781644230589 - QBD Books

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Virgina Woolf’s collection of writings on visual arts offer a whole new perspective on the revolutionary author. Despite wide interest in Woolf’s writings, her circle, and her relationship with the visual arts, there is no accessible edition or ... - 9781644230589

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Here is the Audio file

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Message, Egg Tempura on Clay board, 18 x 24 "