Terence Clarke: New Paintings

"What is a picture? For me it’s a chance to escape into a place where you can be silent and enjoy a little insight into the visual world. A picture is a place away from the problems of life and a chance to be at ease. I hope when you look at these pictures, that you will be at rest and encounter a landscape that is at once familiar but refreshed. I have used colour and tone to explore and transform landscape and still life. The picture is a thing in itself, an invitation to imagine and feel. In essence, whatever the subject matter, all paintings are about light. The sensation and effect of light has a big effect on our mood or sense of happiness. I have used the light of Spain and the south of France to enhance that quality of rest and peace that strong light evokes. The light has been transposed into colour. The colour goes beyond observation to express a certain passion for the sheer joy of the visual encounter and hopefully a vivid experience of the landscape. Each painting is composed of a myriad of little marks and decisions. The great thing about paintings is that although we take the image in at one go, it reveals itself endlessly over time. In some way every time you look at a painting, it’s like you’re looking at it for the first time. My paintings also reveal the way they were made. When you look at all the marks and colours, the paint is both an abstract element and yet also creates the image of a tree or apple. Your mind moves between seeing the image as real and then enjoying the sensuousness of the paint on a purely abstract level. It’s not just what you paint, it’s how it’s how you paint that’s important. That’s where the art is.

"Hopefully I have succeeded in communicating a celebratory quality in the work here presented. That’s why I started to paint and draw in the first place….to understand the world and enjoy its visual beauty as well as finding a place to be at rest."