My art practice has always been centered around painting. I feel like it is an extension of my identity rather than a medium I use. I use it as my most personal form of expression. The message resonates much deeper than can be conveyed with words alone. I paint not to communicate a particular point or statement, but to connect. In this process, I am able to give physical form to my thoughts and feelings, making them real and tangible.
My paintings are a reflection of my conscious and subconscious feelings at that time. Body and mind are constantly changing in response to contrasting and immediate stimuli, and I find that I can harness and communicate this visually as the painting progresses.
The process of painting becomes a performance between the canvas, the medium, and myself as it is constantly in flux, shifting, and changing. I have found that for a painting to be successful all three factors must work simultaneously and in harmony, as a painting cannot be forced.
The process of applying paint is crucial to the success of the painting. By applying paint, moving it around the canvas and scraping it off and reapplying it, the painting is given movement and energy. Each painting contains colours that interact with one another and act separately as small paintings within themselves. It is impossible to plan the interplay, but it is possible to work with it and respond to it. Colours are mixed and formed directly on the canvas with multiple factors influencing and changing the work, just as emotions and feelings change as a painting evolves.
Eventually, the painting becomes too loaded with paint and needs to be dried. If the drying process takes too long, the painting can become an assemblage of contrasting emotions from different days, resulting in a muddled and mute image.
I like paintings that reveal themselves slowly. Viewing is as important as painting. Areas recede and advance, as the pictorial space flattens. Parts that are unnoticed at first become significant and the subject slowly reveals itself. The paintings can be viewed in different ways, both from a distance and up close. The ‘alloverness’ is very critical to this viewing process with multiple points of interest drawing the viewer in from a distance. I feel the work communicates on different levels.
If you would like to know more about my artistic process, then please do leave a comment in the contact us section of this website. Alternatively, if you would like to commission a painting then please head to the commissions page where you will find more information.
Best wishes,
Keir