Mark Oliver

Seed of Misconception

Jackson's Painting Prize 2023, Bankside Gallery 2023
Oil
Canvas
120 x 80 cm

£4,250

“As a visual thinker, drawing is the native language I use to translate into oil paint. A pencil point on blank paper is the start of my conversations – and lines, angles and geometry are my ongoing interpretation of the human figures I view as landscapes to map and navigate. I paint figuratively with strong elements of narrative, often using hands and gestures to communicate in place of facial expression, limbs to articulate the fragility of balance and counterbalance, and folds in fabric to define surfaces and textures, as well as render notions of movement, beneath.

There are surface tensions in the foreground of my work. My creative process works to focus oil paint into the geometric forms I find (and force), contrasting with smoother areas, which by proximity create surface as well as narrative tension. My aim is to guide the viewer’s gaze across my compositions where the creative representation of ‘synthetic’ and ‘organic’ conjoin and separate.”