JELLY GREEN X ALEX MERRITT
PAINTING
Image: Alex Merritt
The Art of Perfection
“Maybe as a painter you don’t actually want perfection. The doubt is too important.”
ALEX: I’ve seen it when you have a really famous artist… and then you have old work appear which doesn’t match their fame. I’m like you, there are some paintings out there which I guess are not so bad to other people, but to me…
JELLY: You can remember being OK with them at the time, then you cannot believe how you could have been!
ALEX: It is scary as most of them I thought were amazing at the time, then I have this voice in my head that says ‘this could be shit and you cannot see it!’
JELLY: I did this tiny painting as a teenager ... I threw it in the bin and didn’t know my mum took it out. I found it in her study the other day and when I looked at again realise it isn’t that bad and am grateful she saved it. I usually destroy about a third of what I do... I might be losing some good ones.
ALEX: I have some family and friends who give me grief about stuff I’ve destroyed. If it doesn’t get out of here quickly it’s in danger… I’ll try and fix or paint over it outright! With shows now, I am the one who wants it all to be perfect to keep the quality for myself. I am the one that questions it. Maybe you never stop questioning it as a painter?
JELLY: Maybe as a painter you don’t actually want perfection… the doubt is too important.
A Blank Canvas…
JELLY: Do you ever paint over old paintings?
ALEX: That used to be what I always did. Now I don’t do it in quite the same way. There is a point when once the surface gets a certain way it is working against me. I’ve got better at letting go. When you don’t care about it anymore – it is when you go back into it becomes something new.
JELLY: I have a giant canvas on my wall and I was going to start today, but… then I think it is too scary!
ALEX: I find it helps if I tone it. Like climbing the mountain… I avoid starting but if I tone down the white.
JELLY: I probably won’t start it until next week. I will let it just sit here.
ALEX: It’s intimidating I guess.
JELLY: Also they are so expensive – the stretcher and the priming. You don’t want to mess it up.
ALEX: Just the making part is a lot of work. You’ve already ‘made’ something nice and perfect. It’s like a thing in itself!
Favourite Painting…
JELLY
Vincent van Gogh, The Sower, 1888
oil on canvas, 32.5 cm x 40.3cm
ALEX
Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, c. 1570s
oil on canvas, 220 × 204cm
On each other’s work…
JELLY ON ALEX’S DRAWING
“I think this drawing is spectacular. There’s so much feeling in it. The marks are so bold, and with all the harsh rubbed out areas you can really see the struggle it was to get to the final image. It's also one of those pictures that you know he stopped at exactly the right moment. I love it.”
ALEX ON JELLY’S FOREST BURNING
“I love this painting… It kind of reminds me of ‘The Fall of the Damned’ a little bit. Not literally, but there’s something about it. I like it – it’s so apocalyptic!“
