Two
years ago Alan took a step back from the responsibilities of being
head of the school of fine art at Cheltenham, to focus on his own
work.
The
result is a series of beautiful and intensely coloured oil paintings
which have taken over two years to produce.
...what is at the edge of our vision, sensed as well as seen...
![quote](/staticarchive/cf83633c621746a439c23c3141ed5554abc25c1f.gif) |
Alan
Smith |
The
paintings explore Smith’s fascination with what is at the edge of
our vision - sensed as well as seen; half-remembered thoughts, fragments
of memory and feeling, murmured impressions, glimpses of patterns.
Unusually,
Smith will also create a new site specific work for Worcester City
Art Gallery, which will involve painting directly onto the walls.
It
is unusual for a painter to work in this way.
![Copyright Alan Smith - Ellipsis Series](/staticarchive/c3d1e6a4d93fdfcb639ca378b0e215f4a9b3dbba.jpg) |
Alan
Smith - Ellipsis Series |
Alan
regards this opportunity as an extension of his painting practice
rather than as a change of direction. He describes it "as an intervention
rather than an installation, and as a challenge to find or realise
a painting from the space itself."
Alan
will be working in the gallery to bring out aspects of the space
which simultaneously draw attention to the paint used and to the
implied narratives which the room itself contains.
His
interest in the ways we read or often ignore the clues of accumulation,
fragmentation, chance and other traces will form the impulse to
develop this response to the gallery over time.
The
exhibition is held at Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum 8th
March–4th May 2003.
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