Title: EXIT STRATEGY
Title: Exit Strategy
Medium:
Aquacryl and acrylic on board
Date:
2023
Size: 24 x 30 cm
The model for Exit Strategy was exactly the same size as the painting itself, with the first layer of the painting serving as the background for the rest of the model. I placed each object that appears in the painting on top of this backdrop, photographed it, and then took the object away and used the photographs to make the painting. The composition grew organically as I decided which element to add next after the previous object had been painted.
I hope the viewer′s attention will be drawn to all the points in the painting where the different layers of information do not quite match up. In particular, there are different types of line. The lines where you can see the gesture of the brushstroke tend to suggest, fairly accurately, a certain speed. A quickly painted line looks like it was painted quickly. But lines drawn quickly share the pictorial space with paintings of lines that are made up of many small points in order to look, for example, like a curved dotted line. In addition, lines and shapes are copied and reused: a grey shape “drawn” on a piece of card is recreated as a cardboard cut-out which is then painted in above the original.