Semi Abstract still life oil painting featuring Banksia Baxteri, from a small series of works title Intersect.
Framed in a beautiful raw Australian Oak box frame, ready to hang.
INTERSECT - Artist Statement
For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in the relationship between art and design. When I commenced my formal studies back in 1991, they were thrown into the same basket but I feel like they are wildly different subjects.
Having studied and practiced both disciplines, my work sits somewhere between the two, and it’s not always a place I feel comfortable. I have an ongoing internal tussle about where my art belongs.
The intersect series is something I have been working on for a couple of years now, it’s about letting go; an admission and acceptance of my design background and a conscious merging of both disciplines into a body of work.
Still life is one of my favourite genres, yet these flowers in vases are clearly not painted from life. They are informed by synthetic cubist ideals and early pop art, and are unconcerned with form or perspective. Pictorial flatness is a naturally occurring theme in my work after many years designing logos and icons for single colour output, and the restraints of a long print design career have unlocked a deep appreciation and respect for the pleasure of applying the paint itself.
The works in this series explore both painterly and linear techniques, and are characterised by a central line through the composition that serves as the water line, refraction and intersect between the background, vase and surface. This technique somewhat mimics the imaginary grid structure I would use to set type and images in a traditional page layout.