It's all there in the recent paintings - smouldering beneath the surface, a slow steady burn: the desire to know, the desire to create quality that will sustain beyond the immediate, the desire to express a pure experience, the desire to find the moment.
Through enigmatic use of space, evocative tonal applications, and subtle linear elements, the recent paintings of Andrew Farquhar, continue his investigation of physical and metaphorical space and surface
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In his unique approach to painting, Andrew applies threading lines of acrylic paint to form the structure, or as he prefers to call it, the paintings DNA. The lines inflect and add incidence, informing scale and proportion, while also generating sufficient composition variation so that each individual painting remains unique. Like individual members of the same family.
Subsequent layer upon layer of monochromatic paint of varying tonal graduations are used over the painting to record its creation. These highly transparent veils, often in excess of 80, eventually form highly saturated and glossy layers of acrylic paint. A fictious light radiates from the depths below in each painting releasing a flow of energy.
Through a process of absence and presence each painting surface reveals openings of meaning while at other times burying past recollections within the depth of the layers. Paradoxically it is the traces left behind that represent the paintings materiality and provide the most immediate structure. The sensuous surfaces read as architectural strata, demanding the viewer to engage in a search of time and interval, where specific memories are preserved yet others are denied or obscured. This is best emphasised by a statement from Greg Dening, a contemporary ethnographic historian:
'There is no past that I describe that is not joined to my present. There is no other that I describe that is not joined to myself'. 1
Formally precise yet highly expressive, the paintings speak of collective experiences and environments. In the alluring, reflective surfaces, the viewer can literally be drawn into these sculptured and expansive paintings. Created with a minimalist sensibility and a forthright process of application, Andrew Farquhar has developed paintings that are at once quiet, candid, and extremely compelling. Click here to return to recent paintings 1. www.debradawes.com.au/grayspectra-text.htm
