Reclining With Red

John Oxborough’s painting practice is centred around his devout exploration of the human figure.

His works are expressive and are generated from a complex web of visual information which in turn comes from intuitively responding to the suggestion of form.

In relation to this the artist explains a recent but important development. “I’ve always been jealous of the accidental spontaneity of my palette boards…an unsuccessful drawing may be abandoned on the studio floor where I’ll use it as a drop sheet or mixing board.”

By re-visiting these abandoned works, such as Reclining With Red, Oxborough opportunistically re-works them. Existing accidental forms and marks are augmented with both drawing from life and an intensely animated quality of line. In this way he confidently explores and communicates new forms in just a few strokes of pencil or paint.

Although rejecting a specific narrative, the artist constantly drops hints in the form of symbols without defining their relationship to the viewer.

Props, both imaginary and real, add a sense of theatre to the works, guiding us to construct a story from the component parts.

Although he may have his own reasons for including these items, Oxborough deliberately leaves them imperfectly formed and unexplained. They remain as puzzle-pieces to be assembled into the narrative whole, whatever the final form may be.

This freedom from dictating narrative allows the artist to devote full attention to his abiding concerns: the nature of composition; the way the body is formed and settled; and the formal aspects of colour, line and shadow.

Event listed by Sanderson

View their other events or contact promoter