The final piece that I worked on for Part One was a further attempt to try to remove as much of me from the process creating as possible. This got me to think about how much I can remove myself from the act of creating. At some point there is an interaction which results in a decision that what I am presenting is a piece of work.

My aim in trying to create this work would be try to utilise the wind to create the marks. The weather over the past few weeks had been particularly windy due to two storms that had hit the UK, named Ciara and Dennis. I would work outside and set up a series of tools that would react with the wind. My starting point was to tie string to garden canes. Some of the strings were weighed down with hair clips or paper clips. These seemed to move reasonably well in the wind but the movement was a little limited. I would later try to increase to movement with the addition of bird feathers. The bird feathers would also be used to create marks.

Below are pictures of the set up.

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The issue that I struggled with was how to get the ink and paint onto the paper. I didn’t want to be involved but I couldn’t think of a way of removing myself from the process other than some sort of dripping mechanism. In the end I decided that I would apply the ink and paint by tipping and dripping it onto the surface. I was disappointed with the marks that the dripping made but hopeful that these would be removed, altered by the mark making. Initially I applied black drawing ink, this would be the dominant material. Later I would add diluted Acrylic paint using two colours Red Ochre and Naples Yellow.

Some photographs and a video of the process in action below:

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To try to increase and vary the marks I added some twigs to the string and covered the support with dead leaves. These would get blown over and off the support.

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I intended to let the process run for several hours and this was confirmed when unsurprisingly it started to rain. I hoped that this would help the paint and ink to remain wet and allow more marks to be made. However it seems that the main impact was to wash the paper and allow watermarks to accrue.

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It rained for approximately three hours. I left the painting outside to dry but it was further assaulted with more heavy rain and some hail too. It remained outside overnight before being bought in the following day to slowly dry in the shower.

What would the final painting be like? Would it reflect the process that it had been through to suggest its creation?

My initial reaction was one of disappointment. It appeared to me to be a washed out version of some of the other action paintings that I had created for earlier projects.

It was after closer observation that the subtleties of the work started to reveal themselves. The small marks and washed out colours were seen better in sections of the painting. Firstly I cropped and zoomed in on the painting using a photo editing tool. This process reminded me, a little, of the Sea Paintings of Jessica Warboys. As part of the process the canvases she had made were cut up, edited and reassembled to create the final piece.

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Next I used and old picture frame and moved this around the painting noting the different views that this gave me of the work. Two of these are shown below.

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My final action was to decide whether I should cut up the painting and create a series of smaller paintings. At this time I have desisted from this and have kept the painting intact. The main rationale for this was to keep the work whole and for the editing not to be initiated by myself. The picture frame can be moved, by myself or others, to create different views which can then be captured by being photographed and an endless series of images created.

I tested this by asking Marian, my wife, to create three views that she liked and I also created two myself by placing the frame randomly on the painting. These five images are shown below.

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These smaller images do suggest the process and the time taken. In summary the painting process has been reversed whereby the viewer creates the painting from the combined actions of the weather and its impact on the materials.

• Part 1