"Guide" Painting

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Artist Statement
By examining my painting process, paying particular attention to the decisions that I make whilst painting I have concluded that my work and style of painting lends itself to the ‘gestural brushstrokes’ and ‘spontaneous mark making’ that characterises abstract expressionist works (Tate, 2019). According to Tate there are two broad groupings within abstract expressionism; action painters and colour field painters. Tate describes action painters as those ‘who attack their canvas with expressive brush stokes’ (Tate, 2019). My practise is largely focused on the expressive marks that I make. I believe that my work shares similar characteristics with action painters. I study the work of abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Helen Frankenthaler and Willem de Kooning, alongside contemporary artists such as Fiona Rae and Julie Mehretu in order to analyse all aspects of painting.

Adolph Gottleib stated that ‘so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all. On the contrary, it is the realism of our time’ (Gottlieb, 1947). My paintings are a reflection on now, documenting the unconscious, capturing emotions and feelings through choice of colour and expressive mark making. I am continually inspired by the scale of other artists work such as Julie Mehretu and Cy Twombly. I often experiment with scale in my work in order to explore whether the size of the canvas affects the expressivity of the marks made. Working on a larger scale allows my marks to become free flowing and expressive enabling me to use my whole body to create the marks instead of just my hands and fingers creating a more dynamic painting where the marks are much larger and more visually striking. In order to increase the variety of marks on my canvas I often experiment with different tools. I am interested in the idea of automatic marks in their purest form. I want to capture the purity of the marks and to distinguish the shapes and forms of the unconscious. In order to achieve this, I began making my own brushes with detachable ends and extra-long attachments. This has allowed my marks to become automatic and unknown. I work with these unconscious and unknown marks back and forth to build the canvas.