BLAZE - the attraction of abstraction
23 August - 23rd September 2023
GALLERY ABOVE & BEYOND Linton CAMBRIDGESHIRE
I was extremely fortunate to spend and extended holiday in Cape Town as it was my parents 60th wedding anniversary. My childhood had included numerous road trips and opportunities to encounter the majestic South African landscape. These experiences still shape my creative practice. During my visit I gathered stones, shells, seeds and leaves wanting to connect to the overpowering emotions and wanting to have touchstones for my work back in the UK.
Photographs and sketches are integral to my processes although I now paint the memory of the experience rather than the objects.
Several of the paintings I will be showing later this month in Linton are small, 12” x 12” panels which are an abstract response to the ebb and flow of the ocean crashing on the rocks at the tip of Africa where two oceans meet.
“The less there is to look at, the more important it is that we look at it closely and carefully. This is critical to abstract art small differences make all the difference.”
― Kirk Varnedoe, Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock
Abstraction crept up on me, I had been attracted to it in Galleries and felt the power of colour and form without needing to know what was being represented, but my own work was focused of “getting it right”, learning techniques and skills, wanting to paint a perfect representation. Art College suggested that painting was seen to be a taboo?
However, I continued to paint and to learn about paint. How colours can sing when you layer them, how grinding pigments and blending them can bring magic to the studio. I sought out artisans who knew the recipes for gesso and rabbit skin glue, for making ink, for gilding. I strove to learn to draw and print and of course paint. All the while photographing the shapes and colours around me wanting to hold on the wonder of spending time in nature. Noticing the shapes and colours of the minutia under a microscope or the enormity of mountains rising from the ocean floor.
In 2020 I embarked on a journey which coincided with lockdown. The Creative Visionary Programme with Art2Life. Nicholas Wilton teaches that art and life are intertwined. Find out what excites you and do more of it. Colour, the weathering of rocks, water, and the colour blue….. these were the threads that lead me to abstraction. My journey continues as I discover what paint can do, I explore inks, oils, watercolour, pastel, collage, and acrylics each leads me to take the next step.
“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes…. Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas.”
―Arshile Gorky
