Location:
Painting School,
Faculty of Art and Design, Bower Ashto,
Bristol Polytechnic
Date:
1970 – 1971
These paintings and constructions were produced during years two and three of a Diploma in Art and Design (Painting) at Bristol. Most of them are derived from the application of a grid structure to both the painting surface and the real space found immediately in front of the painting. This ‘rational’ structure is then responded to by the application of paint with a particular surface aesthetic – the industrial quality of yacht enamel – together with a sensibility revealed through hedges of colour.
The earliest painting in this section – Cornish Scribble – made in 1969, can be considered the most important paintings from this section. It involved an interaction between the physical form and structure of the canvas as a curved surface designed to be fitted into a corner, and a lyrically abstracted painted surface. This interaction was an attempt to combine the physical experience of walking through a Cornish lane with approaches to abstract painting first encountered in the late 1960s.
