Of Delphic Persona.
Oil on canvas'
37 X 27.5 inches.
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Apophenia: An Uncanny Presence.
Dunoon Burgh Hall Gallery 10th Street Studio, USA, 2022 - 2023 Athole House Studio, Scotland, 2021 These paintings have a form of anthropomorphism, but a distant one being just suggestive enough that they deliberately lead the observer. Some parts may lead in a certain direction whilst others may contradict that idea and propose a different one. Certainly, if one tries to hang too fixed a notion of ‘depiction’ on one of these paintings you are destined to end up confused and lost, like trying to use an Esher image as a blueprint for your home. |
Of Questionable Character.
Oil on canvas,
37 X 27.5 inches.
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Take another look...
My research for this project has led me to some very interesting reading, which has broadened my thinking on the subject into a consideration of how the brain generally makes sense of the messages coming from the eyes and indeed via all of the senses. The latest thinking on these optical processes is that we don't really see every detail of exactly what is in front of us. Indeed, it now appears likely that the brain creates a substantial part of what we see, based on what it expects to see, and only adds extra details, or corrections based on new information from the eyes. |
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Effectively, the brain joins the dots. It makes connections based on a balance of limited information and memory, effectively it uses preconceptions. But what if the image suggested by the conjunction of those dots is fallacious? Then as with my paintings we are into the realms of apophenia. |
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Almost There. Acrylic on paper. SOLD
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Apophenia seems to me to be the ideal for me to explore the idea of abstract presences in my paintings. This series is intended to perhaps suggest a presence without definitively introducing one onto the painted plane. As I was unaware that the when I painted the earlier works in this series were actually part of the series they were given what can be considered rather 'suggestive' titles: 'Sojourn of the Gonfalon' and 'See Creatures by First Light' are good examples. and this end I have spent a long time considering the titles of these paintings so as to not convey any influence of my own onto the observer.
