Bloodlines

A collaborative exhibition featuring works on paper, etchings, watercolours and sculpture

Two perceptions of a world: The one in monochrome, the other in colour.

The one an underlying obsession to explore and discover the intricacies and complexities of organic form no matter how seemingly simple, the other to explore and reduce, the broader sense of landscape.

Both investigate the natural world with its aesthetic revelations, which through the process of drawing become more apparent. Both rely on the surprise that can be found when the obvious, or that which we now see but otherwise took for granted, reveals itself in a strange and new way or perspective.

A.F. My work deals with tactile and textural forms that emerge through the manipulation of materials transforming them into a space that both repels and attracts.

With a focus on repetition, texture and mark making, layers are built up and then stripped back, starting the process over again.

R.F. Although I work and exhibit mainly with oils, watercolour is something I use both as a stage towards oil painting, and, in it’s own right. Entering into its fluid world can be a relief from the ongoing battle with oil paint. In watercolour much depends on speed and directness and this immediacy and its practicality make it a useful travelling companion. I can hold down the idea, observation, or, emotion in an often limited time span.

Why I turn to this medium is because of its instant responsiveness, transparency, and its continuing conversation between pigment paper and water, influenced by sun temperature and location.

It allows for no hesitancy and can never be totally controlled or manipulated, like walking a tight rope to find the balance between what the paint and water wants and my intent.