Paul Mowbray Artist Craftsman

‘By Communing’, 2020, oil on canvas, 700 mm x 500 mm

In this triptych, the inclusion of the iconic images immediately offers gravity and context for the viewer. In this way we may form a familiar resonant, it is interesting how this is taken by our recollection and can function in a new way/sense. In ways it has similarities to well known samples mixed into new music. In this triptych and a group of recent paintings I wanted to avoid the notion of non-existence, as a black element or darkness. Instead the signifier is the swallowing grey in these recent works. This grey oil paint is applied gesturally in each work, this may see it dragged linear and smooth or kinetically applied, making the ’empty’ still, or in other works an active force.
Many will be familiar with the content I painted in to each canvas. Meaning and questioning may be absolute in bringing these compositions into existence, yet the fulfilment in capturing these works went beyond my expectations.

‘By Succumbing’, 2020, oil on canvas, 600 mm x 600 mm

In, ‘By succumbing’ I studied Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais, at the Tate gallery in 2015 and again in 2019 when it was exhibited in Milan and enjoyed the labour in painting closely to the master. In ‘By communing’, discovering further layers of appreciation as man contemplates sublime nature in Casper David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the sea of fog’.

‘By Fate’, 2020, oil on canvas, 500 mm x 500 mm

In ‘By fate’, I cultivated further a still from the classic 1931 film adaptation of Shelleys Frankenstein. Subtle changes and edits were made to align and focus the potency of this key image.

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