Gerry Traynor @gerrytraynor-blog - Tumblr Blog

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Personal Inspiration and Influence: Science and Art.

When I was at school (many many years ago!) I was heavily interested in biology and chemistry, so much so that it bled into my art classes. In chemistry the visualisation of chemical reactions, the symmetry, the colours and crystal formations held my attention but the maths just lost me. In biology I loved the diagrams in textbooks and the organic shapes in the natural world, especially in physiology and microbiology, it made me imagine everything working away at a microscopic level. I found Virus’ particularly fascinating because they almost appear to be manmade rather than natural occurrences. Needless to say my scientific knowledge is very limited, it’s mostly superficial but that was enough for my purposes.

Seeing patterns and similarities in the micro and macro is still something that I love. Looking up through the trees I can see a network of blood vessels. When I was at school I made a series of sculptures that reflected these sort of observations. I took manmade objects and repurposed them to mimic organic forms in an abstract way. I would also incorporate some intricate detail to draw the observer in to look closer and be drawn into the piece, e.g interlaced wires or photographs of the natural world made into three dimentional geometric shapes.

I would have liked to have continued to pursue this but unfortunately I was encouraged to continue with science instead (’sensible!’), which ended in disaster. Now later in life I’m trying to find some way to finish what I started in other mediums. I would like to go back to sculpture one day but I don’t imagine I’ll ever have the the space!

I want to continue to explore what happens when the geometric meets the organic i.e. symmetry and straight edged shapes meet free flowing organic texture. Hopefully this is a practical way of approaching surface design! either way it’s my voice.

Summing it up: to me, in my tiny world, Science IS Art and it will always influence my work whatever form it takes.

I have no idea what this was about! More underwater inspired randomness. I wanted to experiment with layering up details.

I love these greens at the moment. Winsor and Newton Cobalt Green and Viridian are my favourite, they go beautifully with a deep orange or this neon pink Opera acryla gouache.

#underwater #gerrytraynor #experimenation #watercolour #watercolor #green #coral #ocean #gouache #winsorandnewton #holbein

‘Quad’

#pattern #watercolor #metallicpaint #watercolour #experimenation #art #surfacepattern #colourful #colorful #color #colour #gerrytraynor

Right now I’m kind of obsessed with watercolours and gouache. I’ve been messing about with different techniques for the last couple of months. I like watching the different colours bleed together, it’s very freeing for me not to be so hung up on neatness and solid lines. Just releasing the pigments into the water and then walking away, letting it dry and then coming back to be surprised by the results is very satisfying.

I’ve been using these experiments in some of my pattern construction.

#watercolour #watercolor #gouache #painting #brush #winsorandnewton #gerrytraynor

Why blog?

For the last 8 years I’ve been a Graphic Designer but now I’m looking at branching out into Pattern Design. I’ve always had an interest in surface decoration, textiles and stitching so it feels like a natural progression for me.

I need to focus right now so I thought that the best way to do it was to keep a blog. I’m just going to throw everything onto here instead of letting it gather dust in my studio. I’ll be posting my experimentation, finished patterns, inspiration etc. This is for me, so that I can see what I’m doing and where it is going. I hope to put at least one thing on here every day (even if it’s some rant about how this is a disaster!).