Robin Leonard Exhibition
The exhibition runs from the 14-26 of July.
Please click on an image for a larger view and more information.
ARTIST STATEMENT:
I try to express a feeling of what I see, an interpretation rather than a copy.
Though it may sometimes appear too abstract, it is at any level a collection of marks or reactions, - the paint is there to imply in a natural way the nature it represents rather than being a controlled exercise in safe formulaic technique. I paint with long arms as I want my work to be enjoyed on at least two levels. One as representation seen from a distance, and then as abstract indulgent use of paint close up. Some paintings are open to more than one interpretation. I like to take risks with paintings - paint for paints sake, - with hours spent and sometimes satisfactory work being destroyed when things go wrong. It is by taking chances like this we artists learn.
By painting a too limited range of subjects the artist's response becomes weakened, the work becomes stale, and artists become branded, - all this means restrictions to me. I like the challenge of a new subject and learning by discovery how to paint it, often by second guesses or simply by trial and error. If I keep throwing paint at the canvas eventually some of it sticks. This is really the point of this exhibition. A fresh look at an old subject after a break can be challenging, and though progress has destroyed much of what attracted me here in the first place, by looking harder I am finding Cornwall again.
A truly successful painting is one which I can step back from and say, ‘how did that work?', or 'how did I do that?' Creating is a giving process, one way or another an artist lays himself open to the public. Each time a painting is criticised,photographed, published, or sold so the artist has an emotional response. How the artist feels goes into the next work, artist and work are one.