Artel

piers ottey

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I was born in London, studied in London, moved to Sussex in 1980. I have always painted.

I am interested in using painting to express my views about everything. The subjects are ones that most immediately lend themselves to expressing my feelings.

The figure has always been a preoccupation; mountains too. Towns and buildings, space, sea, trees, plants, and countless oddities provide subject matter.

Process is paramount. Surface geometry, drawing, formal elements as well as the actual physical surface produced by the manipulation of paint is as much the subject as the thing being represented. Although the work could loosely be described as figurative, or representational, it does not rely on representation. Therefore the images may hover between representation and abstraction, sometimes leaning one way, sometimes leaning the other.

I want the viewer to be in no doubt they are looking at a painting; a two dimensional flat image with an edge. I want the surface to speak. I want to convey movement, change; our fallibility as human beings, and a sense of wonder and hope.

I like people to touch my paintings, to be involved with them. I want to leave a record of all the colours used; the order in which they were used. I want to define the drawing, to leave some of the corrections, mistakes and changes. I prefer not to be limited. I work very large. I work very small.

My favourite medium is oil paint. Its expressive qualities are simply endless. Its subtlety and glow is captivating. I also work with mixed media, watercolour, in fact anything that will make a mark.

It’s just painting.