Burning Colour: Graham Marchant
28 October - 19 November 2017

 

These too are of a burning color - not orange, not gold, but if pure gold were liquid and could raise a cream, that golden cream might be like the color of the poppies.

John Steinbeck, East of Eden, Penguin UK 2000

But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, it's bloom is shed..
Robert Burns, Tam O' Shanter - A Tale (Poem) 1790

Graham Marchant´s intently observed and deliberately constructed environments juxtapose the casual clutter of collected memento mori and the human need to organise/order, against the brief pleasure of poppies and cut flowers.

For subject matter I am interested in gardens, manicured spaces, the meticulous rendering of detailed pattern and the interplay of light between the interior and exterior. A recurring theme is an arranged still life placed in front of a window, allowing the interaction of light… (and it is this,) the challenge of painting… the orchestration of tone and line… (that) interests me.
My curiosity is sustained to the final stages... through a gradual and deliberate process... (and)successive stages of revision.

The interplay of light, colour, pattern on meticulously placed objects and intensely rendered flowers is now recognisably Marchant's own.