COMBINATION

An exhibition outcome from a self-directed urban engagement project based in Reading, Berkshire, UK.

Statement for "Combination, Urban Visions of Reading"

The new artworks in this exhibition present abstract interpretations of Reading’s urban landscape combined with geometry and pattern. 

In the past my art practice was informed by the urban landscapes of North West England as they were during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Since then though, many changes have occurred in towns and cities across the UK that have modernised appearances and replaced grimy soot stained facades with cleaner looking architecture that makes use of glass, metal, and digital design techniques. Skylines are changing with the construction of often distinctive commercial and residential developments, that serve the current lifestyle marketing phenomenon, and are also far more pleasant to experience. Reading is included in this trend with the relatively recent developments of the Oracle shopping centre, Kennet Island, the Blade, and the new railway station, among others.

Alongside my interest in landscape, I have been making work in recent years to explore ways of making abstract compositions with geometry and design techniques. This includes drawings and paintings that show an interplay between various shapes, curves and lines, with clearly defined edges and flat areas of colour. This way of working included the use of credit card shapes and dimensions to determine choices in the composition process. For example, I have used a 12mm grid in many cases, as this is the height of a credit card data stripe.

My interest in geometrical approaches to composition has also led to considering the potential of pattern, some derived from Celtic design.

Although the geometrical investigations are interesting, I wanted to avoid losing a connection to subject matter in my work, and so I conceived and embarked on a project to incorporate my observations of local urban landscape. I used a mapping exercise to select eight compass points encircling Reading at 500metre and 1Km distances, from which I photographed views looking towards the centre of the town. Some of these images were chosen as the starting points from which the new work was developed with my graphical approach. There is a continuing emphasis on flat shape, silhouette, and line in most pieces, using some digital preparation, but also using a range of physical drawing instruments and techniques.

Using the compass points I mapped around Reading as observation sites provided structure and consistency to the project, while also counteracting any tendency to choose only aesthetically “attractive” or “interesting” views.

This project has challenged me to work in different ways and at varying scales, and the process of using pattern and graphical precision has been instructive in realising what might be called a submission to a method, or a humbling of oneself to a discipline. This has been the case particularly with the larger canvases “Step Kennet” and “Step Oracle”, where there is no use of wash, surface modulation or linear accent.

Keeping to a limited colour palette was included in the challenge and promoted a coherent harmony in the work. For a number of years I restricted my palette to Ultramarine Blue, Red Oxide, and Titanium White alone, and only recently has this been supplemented with Raw Sienna.

The experience of making this new work points towards further exploration of pattern based compositions that still relate to time and place, and towards a modest but continuing contribution to the genre of landscape.