Artist Statement

2006-04-20

NATURAL FORM

These are fractured interpretations of form, continuity and identity demonstrated within painterly conditions.They are attempts to explore the relationship between negative space and formal organic language have led me toward the manifestation of the fractal and other arbituary indications of the propogation of space and form.

The natural dynamic of the living landscape is always evident in these works,consider the similarities between the path of a river, the direction of an artery or the reach of a branch.

Nature repeats the same designs on a broad scale of different life forms, the head of a cauliflower, a nub of coral and the human brain.

 

By randomly repeating an organic structure I can reveal paradigms within the natural world, it also allows me to resolve nuances of contrast using contradictory approaches to traditional painting.

I dont paint abstract paintings,I try to keep things within literal principles without those principles dictating the process.A visual description of space when defining form has in the modernist tradition, been mostly relinquished to the background as mere splashing of light.Resembling inconsequential impressions of afterthought, these dabs of light were the precursors to more expressive forms of painting that transcended the need to mimic the visual landscape and instead provide a context that relates directly to the emotional interpretations of the artist and the compositional demands of the canvass.

My aims are to bring these techniques from mere ‘background garnish’ to being the main thrust of the work.

Using repetitious marks to create structure, I can then remedy the immediacy of the mark making with a palette knife to define form and systematically eliminate positive space.

Through a seemingly random series of directives I strive to euphemise the laws of chaos, evident in all natural entities without allowing subjective principles of observation to dominate my process.