Post 22 - Practice Statement

 July 2023 Seminar 

Sally Barron 

Works 

1. Blue 1 

2. Landscape 1 

3. Yellow 1 

1650 mm x 1800mm 

Oil on canvas 

 
I have been developing my ideas around what I think about painting – what I think it should be versus what it is. For me, the works are a paint-based enquiry into the nature of colour and light.  

 
I draw on the Abstract Expressionist Impulse: to paint without cynicism, prepare, create and express, autodidactic. I am also informed by the post-Impressionists from the 19th Century, specifically the Nabis Group (Vuillard, Bonnard, et al.), leading onto my interest in other artists working today who have been similarly affected, such as Peter Doig, Jennifer Packer, Makiko Kudo, Cecily Brown, and others.  

Guiding this research and information is the premise that the identity of a woman and the identity of Art are both open to question and may be investigated together through the creation of artworks.1

The ideas that drive my painting forward currently are exploring the hypnagogic (the ‘in-between’ state immediately before falling asleep for example - which I feel I can achieve through listening to music while I paint), past and current colour theory, drawing from life, en plein air specifically, aiming for somatic experiences, which mean ones mind and body are integrated.  

My process is becoming more self-determined through a series of guidelines I have written for myself to follow with regards to the canvas size and preparation etc. I collage, prep for larger canvas sizes, re-use drawings and mix larger quantities of paint. I have tried to be more relaxed and natural in my gestural movements and not always push for completion.  

This has created a sense of tension between the colours, contrast and harmony struggle to compete and I am freer to be more experimental. The ‘body feeling’ versus the ‘head thinking’.

Moving forward I wish to be clearer in my repetition of source material and influences, to be more playful with imagery and allow it to recur, be it stripes, hills, starbursts – patterning is becoming increasingly important to me. Painting in a series of same sized or proportioned supports helps with familiarity and confidence. 

footnotes

1 To quote Marlene Dumas “I paint because I am a woman...”, “I paint because I am blonde.”  Painting (pg 94-95), edited by Terry R. Myers, published by White chapel and MIT Press