Last summer I won a bursary from the university to spend some time in the Icelandic landscape to further my practice. The resulting work is a body of paintings exploring abstraction through colour relationships, using colours inspired by the various landscapes I experienced.
I am interested in the relationship with the sublime of both abstraction and highly-representational Romantic landscape painting. All four of these paintings are landscapes of a sort, but completely lack figurative elements and are essentially representations of ‘nothing’. The triptych’s bright colours and gestural mark-making contrasts with the larger canvas’s off-black tones and minimalistic composition to explore the same concerns through differing formal elements.
These works were also produced in response to the relationship between the female artist and the abstract painting. Historically women’s contribution to abstraction has largely been erased, with movements such as Abstract Expressionism earning a reputation as a very masculine tradition based around the application of the hand of the genius artist. My paintings seek to contribute to a contemporary dialogue of female abstraction which challenges that misconception.
Yr haf diwethaf enillais fwrsari gan y brifysgol i dreulio rhywfaint o amser yn nhirwedd gwlad yr Iâ i gael hybu fy ymarfer. Mae’r gwaith a ddeilliodd o’r daith honno yn gyfres o baentiadau sy’n archwilio’r haniaethol drwy berthnasoedd lliwiau, gan ddefnyddio lliwiau wedi’u hysbrydoli gan y gwahanol fathau o dirweddau a welais yno.
Rwy’n ymddiddori yn y berthynas â’r aruchel sydd gan haniaeth a phaentiadau tirluniau Rhamantaidd cynrychiadol iawn. Mae pob un o’r pedwar paentiad hyn yn fath o dirlun, ond does dim un elfen ffigurol ynddyn nhw o gwbl ac, yn y bôn, maen nhw’n cynrychioli ‘dim’. Mae lliwiau llachar y triptych a’r gwneud marciau awgrymog yn cyferbynnu â thonau llwyd-ddu a chyfansoddiad minimalistaidd y cynfas mwyaf er mwyn archwilio’r un pethau drwy elfennau ffurfiol sy’n wahanol i’w gilydd.
Cafodd y gweithiau hyn eu cynhyrchu hefyd mewn ymateb i’r berthynas rhwng yr artist o fenyw a’r paentiad haniaethol. Yn draddodiadol, cafodd cyfraniad menywod i waith haniaethol ei ddileu i raddau helaeth, â mudiadau megis Mynegiadaeth Haniaethol yn magu enw iddo’i hun am fod yn draddodiad gwrywaidd iawn a oedd yn seiliedig ar law yr athrylith o artist. Nod fy mhaentiadau innau yw cyfrannu i ddeialog gyfoes ar gelf haniaethol gan fenywod sy’n herio’r gamdybiaeth honno.
