Many of my paintings are quite brightly coloured; primary colours, usually modified for chroma and value. This painting, ‘Homage to Suetin’ is painted with a more sombre palette. Apart from the blue square, orange and ‘purply’ browns make up most of the design. Even so, I’m surprised at how bright it seems. In daylight the colours sing. Suetin was a Russian artist who supported Suprematism, which, though I think of it as a rather unfortunate title, isn’t so sinister, as it seems to translate to purely geometric composition without organic forms.
Recently I had a month’s one man show at Seven, the arts café on the Harrogate Road in Chapel Allerton, Leeds.
This photograph was taken as I spoke at the opening. Essentially my short speech was a thank you to friends and family. Afterwards someone chided me for not explaining the meaning of some of my paintings. I wasn’t too sure what to say. It felt a bit exposing to say that often an abstract painting speaks to the artist rather than the other way round.
I am writing this in late August. My painting ‘Bolero’ has been accepted for an exhibition of abstract work to be shown in The Open Gallery, Halifax, next month. Sue and I took the painting to the gallery yesterday and met the curator, Alina SavKo. The gallery is modern, one large space with white walls. Parking and access were easy. Thank goodness, because the painting is large and awkward to carry.
The exhibition begins 5th September with a preview on that evening so I hope to post a photograph soon.