Parnell Gallery, 4 July 2017
“Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction.”
The title of this exhibition, ‘The space between’ refers to that which is all around us, sometimes labelled ‘empty’ but in truth, is full of life. It is a celebration of the things we don’t always give our awareness to.
When we are presented with a vista we often isolate and label the highlights and make them the stars of the show, the horizon, the clouds, the shoreline. These are the physical elements that make up the scene but what fills up the space between is our individual perspective, feeling and emotion.
Who we are defines what we see when we encounter striking natural beauty. When viewing a landscape, our personal viewpoint is the essential ingredient that creates a deep connection.
This show is primarily a landscape body of work, exploring the subject with varying levels of detail and abstraction. My intention is to defuse traditional ideas of landscape painting and in doing so explore possibilities within that style.
‘Standing still’, ‘Wild salt air’ and ‘Your own path’ offer a familiar, coherent composition but have an ethereal, dream like quality. I work from an image to source the composition but then add or omit elements to give myself, and the work, a sense of freedom. My intention is not to copy the scene exactly but to use it to create an original panorama.
In ‘The ocean refuses no river’ and ‘The space between’ this concept is taken further. Undoubtedly these are landscapes, they feature a horizon line, a sky, a foreground but they are open to interpretation. They extend an invitation to the viewer to create along with me, to bring their perspective and use what I have offered here to find their own meaning.
Waves, rocks, mountains and rivers are just a few things people have told me they ‘see’ in these works. There is a freedom to explore and create when viewing these pieces, finding a small detail or large sweep of colour that ambiguously appeals to the traditional landscape our minds know so well.
From here I dissect the landscape even further into an almost molecular form in ‘Uncharted territory’ and ‘Genesis I & II’ using the medium to create intriguing movements.
The large format works are essentially ‘emotional’ landscapes, these do not have a recognisable format. They appeal to the deeper level of mind and spirit. Again, they are ambiguous, allowing the viewer to create, to search the surface of the work and in turn explore the inner self.
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