Description
In Space VIII – wire loops over copper and white
Painting on canvas weaves loops of raised metallic grey across a copper, white and brown ground, and those loops enclose five planes of very different colour: abstract painting built as much by modelling as by brushwork, since the wire here is formed rather than drawn.
Technique and texture
The wire is not painted at all — it was raised out of the paint itself and then burnished to a metallic sheen, and it can be felt with a fingertip. Beneath it the ground was built in dense overlapping layers and rubbed back in places to a paler one below. A tuft of silver spikes on the left edge was modelled spike by spike and stands off the canvas like a bundle of needles.
The motif
The planes inside the loops are handled differently one from the next: a cold blue-grey drop at the upper left, a reddish brown oval under it, and an orange-red oval on the right split by a vertical slit of light. A floral rosette is pressed into the paint in the upper left corner and is the only ornament in a picture that is otherwise geometry. The loops cross one another and never once close a full circle.
Setting and placement
The relief stands so high that side light gives the painting its own shadows, and it changes as the day moves. Put it where that will be seen — a foyer, a study, a living room with contemporary furniture.
- Technique: hand-painted painting on canvas, modelled and burnished wire loops, rubbed-back layers, modelled silver spikes
- Palette: copper, white, brown, orange-red, blue grey
- Ideal for: foyers, studies, living rooms
- Character: material, tactile, contemporary
Choose the size that suits your wall.
