Painting is the most vital of all artforms because it is an embodied practice of becoming over an extended time frame. Vital in that vita means life, essence and the animated principle of living beings: through an orchestration of dabs, slabs, dashes and slashes of paint we are brought into the world of the painting, which, like a two-way mirror, both reflects and projects inwardly and outwardly.
To draw is to raise to the surface that which had hitherto been withdrawn. Painting is a form of dis-covering aspects of our world from within it, sensually and directly. These remarks can be said for all approaches to painting, but for me fidelity to experience is essential, as a response to the abundance of the world always in flux, to quieten my ego and see things as they appear and before they disappear. It is painting in a mode of second innocence, without the trappings of intentionality or expected progression. My attention is absorbed by the play of light on leaves or water, of the relative weight of air and rock, and of all the vivid interactions and reactions occurring every moment around me. I am part of the interplay, not a passive observer. My spirit is excited by the allure of what I am seeing, feeling, hearing and touching, and I am moved to bring the experience to life through the slippery material of oil paint on canvas. It is an enormous labour, amounting to several phases developed over weeks and months, but with careful nurture it reaches its conclusion as an equivalence of experience. To draw is also to equalise.
Philip Braham
© 26th May 2024