I am a drift. The calm and stillness within this space envelops my being and the racing of my mind eases, the modern-day steeplechase to a soft hush. I am barefoot on the shore, staring out to sea in the Land of Many Waters. A long look at the horizon and then I am washed away, tangled in a current of pigment, floating, stripped of all form and lost at sea.
At the age of 87, Sir Frank Bowling’s only ambition is to keep creating works. His exhibition at the Arnolfini, located on the historical dockside of Bristol, is a culmination of studio work from the last 10 years. A member of the Royal Academy and an OBE, Bowling is upheld as one of Britain’s best abstract painters and his work ethic is remarkable as he enters his studio every day.
Born in British Guiana in 1934 (now Guyana), Bowling’s dreamscapes and colour fields take you on a journey through his life. Crossing the vast waterways from South America to Britain in the 1950s and the many transatlantic journeys from New York and London between his artist studios.
The work is fluid. Skies merge effortlessly into shorelines with liquid washes of colour. A technique of poured paint Bowling first experimented with in the 1970s. The ‘liquid paint’ is a mixture of acrylic, water and ammonia on canvas with marouflage (which is an adhesive).
Bleeds of iridescent pinks and greens stain the landscape; they feel like faraway lands I am yet to see. Some feel like other worlds, planets in distant galaxies, hot, acrid, never to be explored by man. Some works contain small objects pushed into the paint, like small dinosaurs, plastic bugs and birds. These ‘Charms’ are a personal record for the artist of family, friends, people and places. I don’t think they are for the viewer to decipher. They are a moment in time positioned within the flowing paint, representing memories within the flow of Frank Bowling’s own life.
I left the Land of Many Waters with an overwhelming sense of calm and clarity. Life for all of us is a mixture of ebb and flow. We all come from somewhere and we are all on a journey whether physical or spiritual. Always moving, finding our own flow through life. Just like the unpredictability of Bowling’s pour technique life can feel unsure, a risk, but the results of taking a chance can be very beautiful indeed.
Frank Bowling – Land of Many Waters. Arnolfini in association with Hauser and Wirth.