In my last article of 2023 https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/shoot I invited suggestions, as I have done before, for future subjects for discussion. One of my readers came up with the following: “I was talking about abstract art with friends and we disagreed on the concept of leaving a work unnamed. I thought that the artist might not want to influence the viewer by loading the experience with a particular meaning (from a title). But my friend was not convinced. She did not respond well to untitled works. What are your thoughts? To title or not to title? that is the question!” I like this question. I find it a pertinent one across diverse branches of the arts. To summarise before developing the subject further, I would really rather not title paintings at all, or rarely. At most, I like to offer titles that pique the imagination and lead to questions, rather than deliver answers on a plate. As most of you know, I am a musician as well as a painter, though I am no longer an executant in the former capacity. I am perturbed by the modern obsession with attributing cute, spurious titles to classical music works that were deliberately left untitled by their composers. Fryderyk Chopin composed two sets (plus another small, simpler, supplementary one) of Etudes for piano, which are pinnacles of the pianistic canon. None were given titles by Chopin, despite the penchant for programmatic titles or subtitles by other composers of the Romantic era. Why should they bear names? They are not idealised vignettes of poetic absolutism, and they are not intended to evoke a scene, or a mood. They are simply, and supremely, a collection of pianistic constructions of a technical complexity so precise and elevated that my own piano teacher Peter Feuchtwanger stated: “You do not learn the Chopin Etudes to get a better technique – you wait until you have the technique, and then you study them.” In modern times, the TikTok and Instagram schools of classical piano have seen fit to affix ridiculous soubriquets to almost all of the Etudes op 10 and op 25, viz: op 10 no 1 “Waterfall”, op 25 no 12 “Ocean” (I think...and shudder) and, most appallingly, op 25 no 5 “Wrong Note”. There are precedents, of course – Robert Schumann likened the sound of op 25 no 1 to that of an Aeolian Harp, and the nickname has stuck. Similarly, op 10 no 12 has for years been known as “The Revolutionary”. The subtitle inherited from Schumann at least holds some significance, and is evocative; it is probably with the “Revolutionary” that the rot set in. I could continue – Chopin is by no means the only one to suffer these irrelevant labels – but we are here to talk about painting! Figurative, representational paintings have traditionally borne titles. Landscapes, portraits, flower paintings and so on might be deemed not to require labels as to what they are – bizarrely perhaps, for they are the paintings that usually receive them. Thus we have Manet's LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE, Constable's THE HAY WAIN and Van Gogh's SUNFLOWERS. LE DEJEUNER SUR L'HERBE - Edouard Manet, 1863 THE HAY WAIN - John Constable, 1800 VASE WITH TWELVE SUNFLOWERS - Vincent Van Gogh, 1888 The social subtext of Manet's painting, however, contains far more subtle and scandalous allusions than its anodyne title would suggest, and Van Gogh's various sunflower paintings are surely more than just flowers. In these pictures, we gaze on silence and visual riot, movement and frozen stasis, the throbbing heat of life and the chill of death. In THE HAY WAIN, what you see is of course what you get, though the painting is no less special for that, and looking at Constable's paintings with my artist mother is one of my earliest and most precious memories. I understand why art consumers are sometimes nervous about unlabelled paintings, but let me return to my reader's very reasonable observation that “the artist might not want to influence the viewer by loading the experience with a particular meaning”. Indeed we (I) do not! Often, collectors report that my paintings tell them a different story according to the time of day, the season, or their mood. To posit a painting as 'untitled' is not to abdicate responsibility for its message, but to stimulate the imagination of the viewer from a starting-point of nothingness. Some things, some experiences, some sensations need no name, and they cannot be described. Therein lies their beauty. On receiving the painting they had commissioned from me, one client wrote: “To me it hints at a landscape, tumultuous and deep. The sun appears to glimpse through a stormy sky and is reflected on some form in the mid-ground and possibly, the sea. Every time I look at it, I see something new, like the reflected shapes on the right. Maybe a far-off mountain, caught in the fading sunlight? That said, I love its ambiguity. It isn’t an obvious landscape. In essence it is an exploration of colour, tone, light and shade.” It is worth noting that this painting very enigmatically titled. This is really what it is all about; exploration – exploration on the part of the painter, and discovery on the part of the viewer (and the artist too, if they are lucky!) If I never titled my works, you would be left with, as a rough estimate, some eight hundred “UNTITLED”, to sift through! Be thankful, then, that I do give you something to hold onto, at least most of the time; while at least aiming to perpetuate The Allure Of The Enigma. IN PRAISE OF THE FLEETING - Haydn Dickenson, 2024 Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2024

First of all, a belated Happy New Year to all my followers. Belated, it is, because ever since New Year I have had a string of colds which I've been unable to shake off, and I just haven't felt like writing. I spent the New Year weekend away on the South Coast, where it was all crashing seas, swollen, leaden clouds and feeble attempts to start street fights at 10 am on New Year's Day – not by me, I might add! I like to spend New Year alone, reflecting and contemplating. I always read a lot – this year it was Dylan Thomas and Richard Siken; and I thought, as always, about Art and my relationship with it. The day after returning home, I spent a wonderful afternoon with an artist friend who used to study piano with me - and, in fact, will hopefully be writing a guest article for this column before too long! We discussed art and music, and I took notes, for this person has always been one to stimulate paths of discovery within me. Just before Christmas, I invited my readers to suggest topics for discussion. I am grateful to the reader who contributed the following questions: “Do our emotions get reflected in the colours we choose? Does music influence how we create?” Both of these matters came into the conversation that day with my friend, so let's consider them and throw them open, perhaps, to further discussion as our new year unfolds. My friend, with an unfailing artist's eye, observed on scanning the room that my work often contains juxtapositions of various shades of pink and green; this is something that I had not previously realised. Below is illustrated an old piece, one of those doodles that I perform in the studio just to use up a palette, and then shove in some old frame that needs filling. On the day in question, I had hung it on the wall, in a space that likewise needed filling. UNTITLED DOODLE - Haydn Dickenson, circa 2014 We went through into the next room and, lo and behold, another much larger canvas stared down at us, once again dominated, in its sparse way, by pink and green. THREE-FOUR - Haydn Dickenson 2023 Woe betide anyone, incidentally, anyone who – as has recently occurred - describes this painting as 'looking unfinished'! What is it then, with the pink and the green? Do these colour choices reflect my emotions? I would have to say that, directly, they do not, but indirectly, they may. I do adore pink hues – it is something about the soft warmth and the lightness. Additionally, the colour carries a childhood resonance for me; not an altogether happy or positive one, but a soft pink represents something of extreme familiarity, harking back to my infancy. As for green, I adore the natural world – not the darkness and dormancy of winter, but the new life of Spring. This does not mean , of course, that I am directly making reference to verdancy when I reach for the green; such things happen unconsciously, but are no less real for that. I have recently produced a painting that is to be used in a film project by an award-winning film maker. I cannot yet show the full painting, but here is a detail from it. DETAIL OF PAINTING FOR FILM PROJECT - Haydn Dickenson 2024 You, the reader, may make of this piece what you will, but beware the assumption that any painting that I make, featuring the colour red, necessarily represents anger. Regarding the second part of my reader's two-pronged question, let me refer you to an earlier blog post https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/the-influence-of-music-on-my-work for this question has been asked, and discussed, before. I see music in painting, and I hear painting in sound. Art is, in many ways, indivisible. Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2024

This will probably be the last post of 2023, so may I begin by thanking you all for your support – and input – over the past year. Happy Christmas if you celebrate it, and see you on the other side! Here is a painting from a few years ago, in some vaguely (and unintentionally) Christmas colours! UNTITLED - Haydn Dickenson 2018 Earlier this year, I invited suggestions for topics to be explored here at 'ArtfullyAbstracted', and you came up with some very interesting ones. Everyone's sure to have a lot of time on their hands over the holiday period right?! So once again, over to you. You can leave your ideas as a comment on this post or, of course, as a private message. Shoot! Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

In 2019, I produced a somewhat hysterical painting, FRACTURED. FRACTURED - Haydn Dickenson (2019) Not long afterwards, I chanced upon the press report of a record Paris auction sale of a painting by the French artist Nicolas de Staël (1914-55) illustrated below. PARC DES PRINCES (LES GRANDS FOOTBALLEURS) - Nicolas De Staël (1952) De Staël's magnificent painting sold for $39 million. What struck me was the degree of similarity between De Staël's piece – which I had never before seen - and my own 'Fractured'. There's hope for us all, I guess! Only a few days ago, someone mentioned that same de Staël painting to me again, as reminding her of my work in general; so it's not just me! I see myself as a pretty pure abstractionist; but am I? My paintings genuinely do emerge out of 'nowhere' and, if I'm lucky, go 'somewhere'. I have written about this in the following articles https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/stages-and-changes and https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/in-the-beginning I am pleased if my creative process ends up in a place where a delight in form, colour, balance, chaos, beauty and alarm can all coexist for their own sake, rather than for to evoke some theme or programme. My titles are intentionally cryptic. Though I hide it well, I am a shy person. I do not court the spotlight and, though I love talking about my work, I don't want to let you know too much about it. I am reminded of the great pianist Glenn Gould who, before being interviewed by Yehudi Menuhin (with whom he collaborated in performance) presented the perplexed violinist with a script containing Menuhin's questions as well as Gould's answers! I think many of us like to be 'in control'. I only want you to know 'so much'. I do not invite interpretations of my work - which of course does not stop them being offered! Painting is so intensely personal that some mystique must remain tantalisingly hidden. In an interview with Beata Piechocka in 2020, I was asked “What do you want to give people through your art”. Art that fails to stimulate thought and emotion, or does not seek to do so, can so easily drift into lazy and anodyne waters; and there is too much of the anodyne in today's world. Nicolas de Staël was often described as an 'abstract landscape' painter. I would not like to label myself as such, despite undeniable 'resonances' of nature being present. I prefer to think of myself as voyager who sets out, artistic knapsack on his back, knowing not where he is going. Another painter renowned for his landscape-infused work is the American Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93). Diebenkorn, like me, saw himself as a pure abstractionist, but his mature work emerged out of earlier figuration. In 2015 I visited the Diebenkorn retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, an exhibition which left a profound impression on me. Pages from a leaflet picked up at the exhibition are still pinned to my studio wall. On these, evidence of Diebenkorn's early figurative and landscape work can be seen. For Diebenkorn, it was the space and the light of California that gave him energy. For me, it is the Languedoc in Southern France, where I spent some of my happiest and most fulfilled years. https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/art-and-terroir ECHOING BACK - Haydn Dickenson (2021) AFRODISIA - Haydn Dickenson (2015) As with Diebenkorn, my profound love of the natural world leads to elements from that realm sliding into my abstract imagery. How can we refrain from articulating nuggets of truth that reside deep in our core? Thus it is that several of my paintings embody unintentional landscape and seascape qualities. EMPOWERMENT - Haydn Dickenson (2022) PROPULSION - Haydn Dickenson (2022) My paintings illustrated above (except FRACTURED and ASFRODISIA) are available either as originals or as Fine Art Prints from Iologies Fine Art at https://www.iologies.com/ Fifteen others are currently on exhibition at Lambdens of Woburn, MK17 0PZ. Details are available from Iologies Fine Art as above. Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

I am aware that it's been a while since I last posted. I have had a few worries and preoccupations. I was also laid low with persistent laryngitis and a chest infection for nearly five weeks. Even writing required more energy reserves than I could muster and, whereas normally I would knock out articles for this column with feverish energy and in the white heat of creativity, in recent weeks my brain would typically atrophy after one paragraph. I abhor clichés so let's not call it 'writer's block'. Here I am then, with a post unlike my habitual style. In Post no 42 https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/my-own-trumpet I wrote of my reluctance to 'puff myself up', preferring to retain a more 'Art History and Opinion' style in my column, with only occasional reference to my own work. News of exhibitions and so on would be announced, more typically, in newsletters (also not so regular of late – sorry!) Today's 'off-piste' article is simply to announce the departure from my studio tomorrow of some twenty-six paintings destined for an exhibition in a rather exciting new gallery. As it happens, some of the paintings illustrated in https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/my-own-trumpet will be featured in this new exhibition. I'm excited about this prospect. More details will emerge in a newsletter once dates are finalised. Meanwhile... Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

I have a friend – though sadly we have been out-of-touch for a while – who had a cat named Edgar. This, she said, was in tribute to the artist Augustus John's cat, of the same name. My friend's cat, now deceased, must have had something of an identity issue. Not only was the poor feline's ownership vigorously disputed in the southern French village in which he lived (a neighbour robustly claimed him as hers, and gave him a different name) but I now discover his illustrious namesake belonged not to Augustus John, but to his artist sister Gwen! THE CAT - Gwen John Cats aside, I thought it might be interesting to explore the dynamic which existed between the John siblings, which was an interesting one, rendered still more so when the powerful figure of Auguste Rodin – he of 'The Thinker' and of some of the most exquisite erotic drawings ever made – was introduced into the mix. Augustus John (1868-1961) was a Welsh artist. Proclaimed by Virginia Woolf in 1908 as the beacon of hope for British Art, John was thus - and in other ways - connected with the Bloomsbury Group, whose activity I have discussed in a previous article here. https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/blooming-bloomsbury AUGUSTUS JOHN in 1909 (by Jacob Hilsdorf) PORTRAIT OF AMBROSE McEVOY - Augustus John Augustus John, like me, fell in love with Southern France. What red-blooded artist could fail to, faced with that region's heady melting-pot of fierce sun, wild landscape, seductively shaded town squares, food, wine and the beckoning of a carefree enjoyment of life in all its richness? In 1910 he arrived in Martigues in Provence and found 'There was no need to seek further”. He later severed connections, feeling the town had lost its simple charm; a mindset with which I strongly identify. John was also deeply interested in the Romani people and their culture, becoming President of the Gypsy Lore Society LINK from 1937 until his death in 1961. Here too, we find a parallel with my own interests. One of the 'classical' (an unfortunate umbrella-term) pianists whom I admire to the utmost degree is György Cziffra who was of Romani heritage and was discovered playing in the bars of Budapest. Mine is an unconventional choice, I am aware. Cziffra's pianism was often denigrated for entirely non-artistic and wholly prejudiced reasons, though he was capable of a passion and sensitivity equalled by few practitioners of the art. My affection for Augustus John's paintings is as robust as it is for his beliefs, lifestyle and interests; indeed I was admiring his rather haughty but extremely striking portrait of Lady Ottoline Morrell in the National Portrait Gallery just this afternoon. Unfortunately it hangs high on the wall and is not flattered by the light that falls on it. LADY OTTOLINE MORRELL - Augustus John, c. 1920 Even more though, than the canvases of Augustus John, I admire those of his elder sister Gwen (1876-1939). In time-honoured fashion, Gwen John's career was somewhat overshadowed by the two principal men in her life, her brother Augustus and her lover Auguste Rodin. Augustus admired his sister's work, but Gwen's reticent demeanour in addition to the prevailing social prejudices of the times did her no favours against the more glamorously bohemian figure of Augustus. Gwen John was known, as was her brother, chiefly for her portraits. Here are are two self-portraits which seem to me to fascinatingly contrasted. In the first, Gwen's wistful gaze seems almost to drift through the viewer in a poetic, dreamlike way. In the second, we meet a person of confident and commanding outlook, her hand placed challengingly on her hip and fixing us with a direct gaze that belies her apparently diffident personality. This second image comes direct from the National Portrait Gallery where I saw it this afternoon. SELF-PORTRAIT - Gwen John SELF-PORTRAIT - Gwen John, c. 1900 Art, of course, is subjective, but I do find a greater degree of subtlety, and even of emotional range, in Gwen John's portraiture than in the work of her brother. Her domestic scenes too, exhibit a notable sensitivity in her handling of light and in the way she conveys mood. Gwen, I believe, was a highly versatile and poetic artist. Her work is magnetically seductive. THE BROWN TEA-POT - Gwen John, 1915-16 A CORNER OF THE ARTIST'S ROOM IN PARIS - Gwen John, 1907-9 Let us complete the triangle by looking at the art of Auguste Rodin, and his place in the world of the John siblings. AUGUSTE RODIN In 1904, Gwen travelled to Paris with her friend Dorelia McNeill (who would later marry Augustus) where she started modelling, mostly for female artists. She soon began to model for Rodin however, and the pair embarked on a ten-year relationship despite a thirty-five year age gap between Gwen and the older Rodin. Rodin is known chiefly for his magnificent sculptures. 'The Thinker' is arguably one of the most recognisable three-dimensional artworks of all time, existing in at least 27 full-size castings and achieving a similar iconic status to Van Gogh's Sunflowers or, in music, Beethoven's so-called 'Moonlight' Sonata. THE THINKER - Auguste Rodin For me, however, Rodin's genius is expressed still more persuasively in his intensely sensual nude and semi-nude drawings. In the same way that my life changed when I first heard Glenn Gould play Bach, so it did when I discovered these delicate, ethereal utterances by Rodin. They were a formative influence on my early figure-drawing, and I adore them to this day. SALAMMBO - Auguste Rodin Perhaps the protracted relationship between Gwen John and her older, much more famous lover was cemented in a shared sensual commonality. Elements in the art of both would seem to suggest that this was so. Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

A painting of wild, noisy and joyous exuberance hangs in the Tate Modern Gallery in London. It is HIP HIP HOORAH by the Netherlands-born artist Karel Appel (1921-2006). HIP HIP HOORAH - Karel Appel (1949) I love the innocence of this piece, the peculiar amalgams of animals and humans that seem to dance before us, cavorting with a roughness, honesty and veracity that shun pretension. Appel apparently thought of these beings as 'people of the night', so gave them a dark background. Personally, I like the piece of astroturf on which the extreme left-hand figure sits! Karel Appel was a member of the CoBra group (1948-51), a set of artists from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam who sought to invigorate post-war culture with a childish and impish joie de vivre. Appel believed that “the child in man is all that is strongest, most receptive, most open and unpredictable”. In this stance, I perceive echoes of the Dada movement of the earlier twentieth century. Another term coined for this mould-breaking art is Art Brut (Raw Art), a moniker established by the artist Jean Dubuffet (1902-85). L'ARBRE BIPLAN - Jean Dubuffet (1968) Dubuffet's work demonstrates a similar rebellious simplicity to that of Appel. Dubuffet was interested in the creativity of individuals outside the potentially stifling confines of 'establishment art', particularly drawings, paintings and sculptures made by psychiatric patients, hermits, spiritualists and the like. Yet another umbrella-term for the genre is 'Outsider Art'. Invented in 1972 by the art critic Roger Cardinal, the term gave rise to a superb book, of that name, which I have in my library. In OUTSIDER ART: SPONTANEOUS ALTERNATIVES (Thames and Hudson), the author Colin Rhodes explores the coruscating world of art produced outside the mainstream by criminals, recluses, folk artists and others. This absorbing, revelatory and moving book was described by Roger Cardinal himself as representing “the best and most lucid account of Outsider Art...a fascinating field which has begun to expand at an astonishing pace.” As someone who has felt – proudly – something of an outsider throughout his life, I feel drawn to the realm of Outsider Art for its metaphorical nose-thumbing at various prevalent notions of what Art 'should' be. As someone once said to me – well, many times they said it, actually, “There is no should” Enjoy exploring art 'outside the box'! Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

In the early part of 2022, I produced a quartet of paintings which I entitled my 'Manifestation' series. Shortly after this, my career path took an upturn when I was signed up by Iologies Fine Art https://www.iologies.com/ PROPULSION - Haydn Dickenson (2022) https://www.iologies.com/product-page/propulsion LIBERATION - Haydn Dickenson (2022) https://www.iologies.com/product-page/liberation EMPOWERMENT - Haydn Dickenson (2022) https://www.iologies.com/product-page/empowerment ASPIRATION - Haydn Dickenson (2022) https://www.iologies.com/product-page/aspiration All four acrylic paintings, as shown underneath each image, are available as originals and also at very much lower cost as Fine Art Prints, all at Iologies. The size of all originals is 76 x 102 cm unframed. Prints are available in A1 and A2 size. Framing options are available via Iologies - talk to the team at https://www.iologies.com/contact All prints are currently at a special discount of 50% off. I hope you enjoy these paintings and perhaps feel tempted to treat yourself for Christmas! Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

Well, not me or my mind, particularly – though some might consider the title apposite! Instead, I refer to https://www.thecrazymind.com/, a very interesting site which features interviews with 'creatives' across diverse genres. Back in September 2021, I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by the team and, since that predated the inception of this column, I thought readers might be interested to see it. You can read the interview here https://www.thecrazymind.com/2021/09/interview-with-painter-haydn-dickenson.html Just so as this post is not confined to a link and a few words, here is a painting that sold back in 2019, the year it was made. I'm looking to add some more 'already sold works' to the Iologies site LINK to be released as prints – both Fine Art and Limited Edition, so who would be in favour of this one being made available? Do let me know? THE WAY THE WAVES COME IN - Haydn Dickenson 2019 And don't forget, Iologies Fine Art is currently running a 50% launch-discount on all prints, so do drop by and choose – perhaps as a Christmas present! https://www.iologies.com/copy-of-originals-1 Since the launch of Iologies' website, there have been interesting developments. These include ongoing negotiations with a buyer for NFT rights on two of my paintings, together with overtures made to some interesting provincial and London galleries. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

For any newcomers who have not seen this evening's newsletter, please do subscribe! To those who have already seen the newsletter, please forgive me for the repetition! May I kindly point you in the direction of Iologies Fine Art https://www.iologies.com/ where you can purchase all or any of my original paintings, or fine art prints of them, or limited edition signed prints of them – to suit your budget. The sale of original canvases is a new departure for Iologies, and I am honoured to have been taken on recently by this dynamic and forward-looking publishing-house which is run by a really visionary team. Through Iologies I have already been commissioned by a multi-award-winning film maker to produce the promotional images for what promises to be a superlative short film of stunning power and impact. I am finishing the painting almost as I write. I can't share details of the film yet, but, as they say, watch this space! Please share details of Iologies' site with your friends. Go to HOME, then CONTEMPORARY, then ABSTRACT to see me – ok here's the link anyway https://www.iologies.com/copy-of-originals-1 You can read lots about me on the HOME page too https://www.iologies.com/ To buy, click on any image to see the product page, together with PayPal purchase options. In 'blog years' this post is now older than I am – ok, have a guess, or count the posts if you can be bothered! Maybe do the latter and then you'll see any articles that you've inadvertently missed! Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

Today, October 26th, sees the anniversary of the birth of a true abstract pioneer, the Swedish artist Hilma Af Klint. Producing her striking abstract works well before those of Mondrian, Kandinsky and Malevich came on the scene, this extraordinary painter was truly a 'first-footer' in the world of abstract art. SVANEN - Hilma Af Klint I will not write in detail today about this magnificent artist whose theosophical beliefs infused her paintings – you can read more about her and about the importance of Theosophy on early abstraction in earlier articles here https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/female-artists-and-abstraction and here https://www.artfullyabstractedblog.com/post/kandinsky-scriabin-steiner-and-the-primitive There – that was a quick and easy post to write! A friend did recently suggest to me that my articles could be shorter (you know who you are)! I have another post to write today though, and a newsletter so, I'd best get on... Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023

With a nod to Blaise Pascal, I would like to introduce today my new painting, THE CENTRE IS EVERYWHERE. This 40 x 40 cm oil painting forms part of my ongoing 'Spatial' group. It seems quite a spiritual painting to me. Painted at a time of world turmoil, and just before the sixth anniversary of my mother's passing (tomorrow), I feel this canvas holds some deep resonances. THE CENTRE IS EVERYWHERE - Haydn Dickenson, 2023 I am amused at how short today's post is! Expect something a bit more substantial, plus a newsletter, in the middle of the coming week! Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend. Copyright Haydn Dickenson 2023