Acrylic on shaped board
Unframed
605 x 780mm
2019
Signed, dated and ready to hang
Protected with an archival UV varnish

This is one of a series of large shaped paintings / wall sculptures that I created especially for a solo exhibition at Muse Art Gallery in Hawke’s Bay, NZ. These are the first really large ones that I’ve made, and it was a bit daunting at first to go so big, and also pretty challenging - I work on a table, so getting back far enough to see if the pseudo-3D aspect was working was really tricky. Standing on a chair just didn’t cut it!

Fortunately, I’ve recently discovered that by using black and white photography I can analyse just the tones and get a really good feel for how successful it’s going to be. Apparently the brain registers tone before it registers colour, so when you catch a fleeting glance of a painting as you drive past a gallery window it’s the tones that your brain registers. And because tone defines form the b+w photo trick is really helpful! Plus, I can take a photo holding my camera up above my head and then look at it on a screen to analyse it (and compare it to what I originally designed).

These paintings are designed to be hung on a split batten that is screwed to the wall - this way of mounting allows it to sit our from the wall by about 18mm, creating a nice drop shadow, and also stops the painting from becoming crooked on the wall.

Because of the larger scale many of these large shaped paintings also have detail on the edge faces, something that is a departure from the small ones.

This painting was in my solo exhibition ‘Equivocal’ at Muse Art Gallery in Havelock North.