Helen Booth – MATTER
Preview: Friday 5th July, 7pm
Artist talk: Saturday 6th July, 3pm
Exhibition continues until Saturday 10th August
Gallery open: Tues – Sat 12 – 7pm
Bar open: Tues & Weds 12 – 7pm, Thurs 12 – 11pm, Fri & Sat, 12 – 1am
To view this information in Welsh, please click here.
MATTER is a response to the Icelandic landscape and its inherent monochromatic beauty. The lilac, white snow and black sand were a tangible form of the paintings the artist aspired to create.
‘The abstract black flecks and dots on translucent ground that I had been painting in my studio were realised in the strange, almost sci-fi landscape. MATTER is also an emotional response to the medium of paint; the sticky viscosity and watery oils vying for attention as I strive to capture Beauty. Living in Wales is also important. Witnessing nature, the scars in the landscape, the erosion and the routine of nature is a key source of inspiration.
I work in oil because of the translucency of the medium; the way it takes an age to dry and the way in which it surprises me. I gravitate towards canvas because I love the inherent texture of the surface and the way in which it responds to the pressure of a paintbrush. I often use a restricted palette, relying on slight differences in tone and paint application to create depth and layers. Working with oil allows me to respond intuitively to the marks that I make and scratch and blur the wet surface with graphite; a central element of my practice.
I am fascinated by the fragility of the human condition and the notion of Memory; the way it changes, fades and resurfaces over time. My ideas are firmly rooted in this concept, evidenced in the layering and reworking of MATTER. My intuitive response and the application and destruction of the surface mimics the concept of memory. I am fascinated by how memories metamorphosis and how we create complex personal fictions’.
Helen Booth studied Fine Art Painting at Wimbledon School of Art and graduated in 1989. She has exhibited extensively throughout the UK and Europe. In April 2019, she was awarded two prestigious New York awards – A Pollock Krasner award for painting and an Adolf and Esther Gottlieb Prize for Abstract Painting. Booth won the Glynn Vivian Prize for Welsh Painting at BEEP International Painting Prize 2018.