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JL Would you like to
tell me about some of the elements in this picture. I can see a
WATERFALL and certainly a SUN -
RA. And a slight top
of the tree trunk, but what I am trying to do is to take the spectator
into facets of ---- where you have this WITHIN AND WITHOUT quality, of
rock space, air. What I am trying to create is the vibration that is of
another higher inner reality, in other words with the few colours one
has I try to lighten the colour so that it vibrates much faster than
normal laying on of colour - so we go up so many octaves above a normal
seeing.
JL. Did you use the
word higher reality - did you?
RA. Not then - no.
JL. What was the word
you used?
RA. Higher octave.
JL. Inner reality -
you used the word inner reality, are you talking about the inner reality
of the waterfall and the tree or are you talking about, as well, the
inner reality of the spectator.
RA. Well I am hoping
it will trigger in the spectator, a memory if you like, of a dream, of
another state, that the spectator has been, in which it was much happier
than the one that they are consciously sitting in or standing wherever
they may be in the Gallery - which lifts them through the roof.
JL. This is a
platonic concept - are we once more talking about a return to a
remembered paradise.
RA. Yes - simple as
that.
JL. Now in "ROAD TO
CORNWALL" which was painted was it a little later than the "WATERFALL &
OAKTREE", it could at first appear to be that time is a more severe
abstraction here - I mean the more naturalist elements, TREE & WATERFALL
are less in evidence - but is that the case?
RA. At first glance I
think it does look very abstract, but, in actual fact you have still got
the framework - the structures holding it together, it is not just a
mass of lines you have got the structure of that oblong. You have also
got the feeling of clouds there, but also this travelling on into
another land - it is almost as if you are going through Cornwall into
Tintagel, through to King Arthur and beyond King Arthur to the other
side.
JL. But it is also
an inner journey isn't it?
RA. It is - quite.
JL. I mean is it?
RA. It is,
definitely.
JL. Did you think
when you were painting these, about Kaleidoscopes?
RA. No never - No.
JL Were you
influenced in the late seventies by any movements in contemporary
painting or do you think that you realised this image and others of a
similar kind simply by being true to your original vision and your own
instincts as a painter -
RA Yes - the latter.
JL. The latter - so
would you describe yourself effectively as a loner - almost indifferent
to the work world that is going on in the Market place?
RA. Yes very much so.
JL. Let us look for a
moment then at this one "THE CAVE". Would you like to tell me something
about it?
RA. The first thing
that comes to mind - not that I deliberately went and painted it from
that thought, but it takes me back to the paper bag which we discussed
at the beginning of the book - when my father said "look inside the
white bag" and pointed out the colours which turned into a cave full of
jewels and I think it has that cave like quality of crystals and
sapphires revolving around it. At the same time I can see the
flickering flame-like quality.
JL. Do you remember
what inspired, in particular in this picture, what set you off?
RA. Just colour.
JL. But how did you
actually begin it?
RA Putting a shape -
just one shape of colour.
JL. One flame like
shape?
RA. Yes, one flame
like shape triggers me off.
JL. Do you have any
image in mind when you are creating it?
RA. The only images
that are perpetually before my minds eye, are vibratory ones of the
visions of 1968. Difficult to put into words, but imagine this
recording machine vibrating at 40,000 times faster than it is now.
JL. Yes.
RA. And you would be
nearer to understanding the nature of what I saw and why I paint as I
do.
JL. I see - very
fascinating. I do not know if this is relevant I have seen very
fascinating photographs of a discovery made by E.F.P. CHLADNI
1756-1872. How one can make sound visible by stroking a violin bow
against a sheet of metal on which powder or sand has been placed.
RA. Yes - sand.
JL. The sand has
formed organic patterns - are you - were you aware of that when you
painted it?
RA. I wasn't thinking
of it - but I have studied it. Also I am very interested in the Russian
Kirlian photography.
JL OH yes.
RA. They have
photographed the vibrations of the energy body showing that if part of
the physical body of a living thing is cut away, the bioplasmic body
remains, whole and clearly visible in high frequency field.
JL. You must have
seen the book by Theodore Schwenk "The Sensitive Chaos" - marvellous
photographs of spirals etc., influenced by Steiner.
RA. I don't know that
book John.
JL Very famous, I am
sure you must have seen it because in a way all these pictures are
organic.
RA No I haven't, but
then perhaps that may be a good thing, too much knowledge can clog the
flow. Yes they are organic.
JL. They are all
organic - and there is a sort of interplay of microcosmic and
macrocosmic elements.
RA. Yes - very good.
JL. Now were you
aware of that?
RA I think every time
I paint a picture - I hope something of that is coming over - every time
- whatever the picture - even the early woods - I hope that it was in
those too.
JL. Yes - I mean this
particular one "THE CAVE" reminds me of what LEONARDO DA VINCI said
about looking into a fire. Do you remember that? - In his journals he
talks about looking at the flames.
The Cave
RA. At the flames!
JL. At the fire.
RA. I remember he
talks about looking at walls splashed with a number of stains.
JL. It is similar.
RA. Flames - yes.
JL. What does he say
about stains.
RA. To look at walls
splashed with stains or stones of various mixed colours and allow your
mind to float into the stains which stimulates the imagination. He says
"If you have to invent some scene, you can see there resemblances to a
number of landscapes adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, great
plains, valleys and hills in various ways". It is interesting to note
that THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH in the 18th century, constructed landscapes
from pieces of moss and other odds and ends, to study general effects of
light, mass and dimension. Also DEGAS could paint a cloud from a
handkerchief made into a ball.
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