BODY
LINES
A classical study of the flow and composition of the human
form drawn from life.
Body Lines Jan 24th - Feb 26th 2011
CORKE GALLERY, 296-298 Aigburth Rd. Liverpool
Figurative
art may be rather ubiquitous but it is intertwined in human psychology
and therefore is an essential expression of art. Working from
life is still the best way to create using the human form, sometimes
I will take pictures to work on later. Without the model the positions
and shapes I want to achieve are not always easy to imagine. With
this collection, I began with a vision of the art nouveau
decorative arabesques, sensuous and organic and introduced expressionist
aesthetics, more indifferent to colours as realistic
representation; they have an autonomous, expressive life of their
own.
Initially, the nude models are seen as a motif, the erotic impact
is less direct. The polarity between skin tones and the bed clothes
or drapes are just as easily read as abstract,
the colour zones can be seen independent of their function and
colour becomes the content and subject. Figures and ornament relate
through the contrast of the naturalistic and the stylised, creating
sophisticated interplay between the revealed and the concealed.
Some classical elements remain and it is this balance of ornamental
abstraction and realistic rendering which creates equilibrium
between the nude as a woman and as a creature of ornament and
expresses the complicated and delicate relationship between our
understanding of nature and art.
By eliminating any special definition, the figures are less individualised,
yet suppressing the individuality, or any representational portrait
account of any models features heightens the presence of the body
itself. Rather than use the physical aspects of the female body
to manipulate the paths of vision, I wanted the composition to
remain harmonious with a natural line. The line is very important
to these paintings; its melody exists as a means of establishing
a harmony which underpins the work, at the same time, it robs
the bodies of any tension and allows them to exist freely in their
surroundings.
The women are presented in front of an unassuming background that
spreads and frames the women’s figures. The body encased
like a cocoon, retains a certain passive grace, they give in to
the natural flow of the surroundings, this transforms the figures
into objects, some how re-claimed by nature. The spatial location
of the forms is not strictly defined. I feel as I am seeing a
fragment of an unreal dream world, the purple contours and abstract
planes symbolic of the natural, the painting a motif of the fertile
youthful life force of a sexually active woman. A symbolism which
holds a power today as it did in the figurative art of our past.
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