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Ameln 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm
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Made for the exhibition at Storiel Bangor July to September, this series of works followed the Dar Slimane Residency and builds on the observation of the light of Morroco. My previous post describes the places visited in the country but of particular reference here was the revisit to the Anti Atlas, and Tafraoute, nestled in Ameln Valley. It is surrounded by red granite mountains that present a daily light and colour experience .. soft ambers, yellows against purple blues, a moving kaleidoscope of colour and light: the desert light.
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| Early stages of Rabat (left) and Valletta (right) |
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Early stages of Madersa Salé (right)
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Starting the beginning of March, this new series of work was specifically for exhibition at Storiel Bangor in Cysylltiad Liw + Colour Connections, the joint collaboration project that carries a dedicated blog
here. My successful grant application to the Arts Council of Wales meant that the discourse with John Hedley over the making time could be recorded and new collaborative work made in Crete would be developed and be part of the exhibition.
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| Early stages of the Essaouira series |
New acrylic paints were sourced for this series using primarily Golden and some Liquitex and using a wide range of mediums and varnish. In this series I wanted the paint to be fluid in application with clearly demarked layers without sinking, resolved with a semi gloss to gloss finish. Supports except for the large Gueliz painting were manufactured products and included several 1m square canvases, three 1m x 1.5 metre canvas, 20 small canvas at 23 x 28 cm and 15 canvas at 37 x 43 cm.
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| Ameln early stage |
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| Essaouira No.5 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm |
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| Essaouira No.3 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm |
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| Essaouira No.7 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 33 x 43 cm |
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| Valletta 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm |
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| Tafraoute 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm |
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Chwitter 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 150 cm
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| Rabat 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 100 x 100 cm |
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| Early stages of Rabat |
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| Gueliz 2023 acrylic paint and mediums on canvas 164 x 182 cm |
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| Early stages of Gueliz |
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| Early stages of Gueliz |
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| Gueliz detail including silver and gold components |
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Series nearing completion June 2023 |
Exhibition Statement for Colour Connections
Andrew has recently returned from a residency in Morocco, where the immersive experience identified facets of culture and natural light that permeates this current work. International placements have been a key feature of Andrew’s recent practice. He defines working on location and subsequent reflective work, as creating ‘scapes’ (involving multiple facets of a subject) evolved through both exploratory studies and in the production of a definitive project portfolio for exhibition.
Taking as a point of reference the idea of non-place, his painting has evolved through a parallel questioning of objectivity, exploring memory and experience. He uses diffused imagery to interrogate reality, a dense clustering of line, shape and colour, intersections, gestures and directions. Through a desire for a more flexible and less structured image, his painting has developed to a more expressive idiom with gesture and the dynamic application of paint to the fore.
Painting is a recording of the mind in motion, the movement of hand, instinctive; a suspension of consciousness and an absence of conclusion. Fragmentation is also a recent characteristic with areas of colour brought together as if by accident, colours are relating through juxtaposition rather than by design. As ever, the image is made only by a colour process that has no defined outcome. Rhythm, repetition and spontaneity are indicative of current work, combining both the rational and emotional state of making. Colour itself is both the subject and the image.
