WAC Interview questions 2010

What ideas/themes are you dealing with in your paintings right now? In what way are these works fresh?

With most of my work, as each series represents a progression from the last series of works, I am interested in the relationship of gestural mark making, and the placement of mark within the composition to give a fresh and personal insight into the landscape. Gesture, or the expressive painted mark, represents that place of contact between our assumptions on the nature of the external world around us and our own interpretation, our emotional understanding of that world. To me painting works on this fundamental level, prior to interpretation acting as a ground swell for future understanding.

A solo show is a great opportunity to stand back and see a large body of work. With that in mind, I wonder, what are your general thoughts on this group of paintings?

My work has changed a great deal since we moved to Arizona, in part this is due to experiences before we moved, but each new place I work has a deep influence on the direction my painting takes. A solo show provides a full stop, a chance to underline a series of work and think about what to start next. Emotionally I always feel a bit lost, the work is still too close to me and I feel a bit like a stranger to my own work.  I think at some level of emotion, dealing with some of the lifelong themes of your work, the emotion works very slowly taking sometimes years to resolve. I get closer to a series of paintings as the years pass, being able to articulate more consciously my motivation and give a clearer intellectual rational for my aims and motivation within a series.

Stylistically and/or technically speaking, what do you hope collectors notice in your new work, and what have you noticed yourself?

I hope there is an honesty to the quality of my mark making, it is so easy to consolidate and fall back on old styles and ways of working when painting is not going well. It is also easy to let the world get in the way of what is important in your own work, the subtle distinction between what you should paint and what would be expedient to paint.

Overall, how would you describe the scenes in the new work?

The two new series of work are both based in riparian dessert locations. I tend to work in the heat of the day, from 10 am to about 3pm when the light is more constant, there is always that deep underlying polarity of fire and water, the extremes that are associated with dessert conditions. I hope my work expresses something of that polarity, but also with a subtly of mood that reflects a middle ground between these two opposites.

In this new body of work, which paintings best embody what you’re trying to convey to the viewer?

I think my latest series ‘From Bird Heaven’ (also I think the title of the show) best embodies what I’m tying to achieve, combining a wide gamut of colour in a strong tonal setting, Large abstract gestural mark with a clarity of realism that focuses the painting but also keeps the viewer on edge. Inviting the viewer into the picture but at the same time reminding them that this should not be an easy process. I’m a great believer that a picture should work on many levels, the picture should have an immediate accessibility, but also reveal it’s strengths and internal narrative over many years.

What inspired the new paintings?  [message/insight/location/light/mood, etc.]

The inspiration for a new series is generally incidental, a number of factors working together to create ‘the right’ conditions. There is always a slight weight of focus, almost a sense of déjà vu about a setting that I will consequently work for many hours. My paintings are mainly extended plein-air, maybe 40/50 hours in each painting, building and articulating the surface. I also work in series from the same location so there are often many hundred hours of work in one location. Those hours seem timeless when you are working in the landscape watching for a moment of light.

© C W Pates/Michelle  Borgwardt, Western Art Collector 2010