Whilst researching ways of combining other media with still images, and emerging from a fascination with ancient civilisations – particularly their focus on nature – I became interested in symbolism and biomorphic shapes. I’ve always had a love of colour and this naturally led me to do more painting. However, it felt like there was something missing using traditional methods. I wanted to ‘feel’ the paint, so I started researching and experimenting.
Each painting combines two or three processes. First, creating the skins is a fairly random process. The paint consistencies and colours I mix emerge according to the mood the moment, along with their selection for combination. The pattern – or absence – of the skins is random and freeform. The shapes are left for a couple of days to dry. This metamorphosis from liquid to solid is a significant aspect of the artistic process, not only for the state change but the time it allows the ideas and research to mix and evolve with the emerging colours, lines, forms and textures.
These solid shapes build a stock of ‘component parts’ from which the paintings are built, choosing color combinations and manipulating the shapes to create ‘structures’ on the support. Often I add screws or nails, but these are not required for fixing.
The completed paintings usually therefore express the juxtaposition of random and predetermined, reflecting nature’s own process of creating biomorphic shapes whilst at the same time going through processes of metamorphosis in form, texture and state. I sometimes add ‘platonic’ shapes e.g. circles, squares, triangles etc. to symbolise the mixing, merging – and most likely tension – between natural and man made. A feature lessened or heightened by the level of considered positioning and colour balance. The colours reflect mood, the composition frame of mind (calm, chaotic, happy, sad, anxious, depressed etc.) and the mix with ironmongery the blend of masculine with feminine, and making the art world less exclusive and exclusionary, so that more may experience its benefits. Inspiration for the paintings comes from a range of interests and experiences: nature, anthropology, ancient civilisations, symbolism, art history, spirituality, religion, death, neurology, psychology, mental health, evolution, but it usually draws on and represents the common themes of:
- ‘oneness’ – where everything on the earth is part of the universal
- connectivity – everything within is connected
- a state of flux and reconfiguration
- the notion that human knowledge is flawed and based on our perception alone, and things may be quite different from that which we see and experience
- deliberate and considered imperfection as a form of liberation!
Contact Ally in the first instance by emailing ally@allyclark.com
Also on Insta @allyclarkart
Ally Clark 