Notes on painting
One of my main concerns within these paintings is to move away from tired and conventional tropes of personal expression. I do this by using similar – though not identical – compositional structures. Basic design patterns are layered and developed according to aleatory principles which remain fully open yet allow subjective decisions to override visual imbalance or other concerns I feel need to be addressed. The canvases are of a uniform size and may be exhibited singly or in carefully arranged grids.
The use of repetition is a fundamental part of my painting process, yet despite having an “automated” look, these works are all hand-made. I employ the banality of repetition as a means by which I can further avoid making works that are too close to the clichés of Western ideas of ego and self. There is a strong sense of the mechanical about these paintings, though this is countered using playful juxtapositions which push and pull on the flat surface to form consonance and dissonance in equal amounts.
Part of my chance-based methodology is the use of unmixed colours. Furthermore, these colours are applied in a way that deliberately avoids painterly gestures. Also, through a combination of masking-out and repeated paint layers, raised edges develop, making the final surface a complex arrangement of shapes and patterns that operate in slight relief.
The titles for these images are created by cut-up processes or borrowed from colour taxonomy systems. This interplay of image and title encourages an “open ended” experience of the work that is hopefully unique to every observer, so that what appears on the surface as contradictory or inexpressive becomes pregnant with possibilities.
In the end the paintings are intended to be “elliptical” and entirely self-sufficient, standing for nothing but themselves.
Chris Tosic with additional edits by Peter Suchin
Press
Elephant Magazine: Issue One
Interview with Richard Brereton
2009 – 10
Download a PDF here.