Recent Paintings

           

  

Fringe Arts Bath

I am very happy that my painting 'Tidal' was selected for the Fringe Arts Bath Open Exhibition (25th May -10th June, 33-35 Stall St.).  The prizewinners are selected by the editor of Art of England magazine.  Feel free to email me with any thoughts or comments on geoffreyoke@live.com.

Cycles in nature; renewal and decay, and a fascination with texture have become themes in my recent work. As a painting develops I start to see similarities in the textures and patterns of stone, moss, lichen and scarred tree bark in the painted layers, in the built up surfaces that I obsessively rework. I use many glazes and washes to create a painting and scrape back the paint repeatedly. Previous states of the painting show through the layers. The nature of working like this recollects the grittiness of the Welsh landscape. I start with a few marks, usually derived from observation of the landscape. Drawings of the gnarled roots of a tree have provided a starting point recently. This initial composition can change many times; passages of paint, interesting areas of texture or vague forms emerging, become catalysts to take the painting in a particular direction. I allow the painting to take me where it wants to; sometimes this involves obliterating what has gone before. This process of change brings to mind decay and impermanence in nature. Motifs of rivers and flowing undercurrents sometimes occur as I'm painting. Though ideally, the forms in my work should have many interpretations. It’s more like an ebb and flow in nature. I am interested in the idea of tides affecting the land as well as the sea and in the effect of the tides on the body. When I’m working I am often trying to convey an emotion when I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a the emotion of a fleeting memory. It can feel like I'm grasping at something that is transitory. The anger and frustration of trying to do such a futile thing can lead to a painting’s success; these emotions are conveyed in the finished painting.

Battersea Affordable Art Fair

My work will be at the spring Affordable Art Fair in Battersea on March 15th -18th. I'll be showing with Woodbine Contemporary Arts

Tobacco Factory

I will be exhibiting at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol for the whole of July.The opening evening is on the 3rd of July. Click here to find out more.

Motion, Oil on Canvas, 107cm x 107cm

Tidal, Oil on Canvas, 107cm x 107cm

Midnight Walk (Lunar Spectrum), 90cm x 90cm, Oil on Canvas.

A Still Forest Morning, 90cm x 90cm, Oil on Canvas

Titles

'Crossing the Ford' refers to the ford that used to be at my Dad's before they built the tunnel. 'Hen Rhyd' meaning 'old ford.' A river motive has been present in my work which has come from the drawings, this isn't necessarily a river but could be interpreted in this way. It could be abstract, a flow or movement from one side of the canvas to other.  'Enfoldment' seems to describes this process of painting quite well. Especially this painting which is the one I spent longest amount of time on, layer upon layer of paint has been applied, it has changed colour and composition many times. Like it is slowly closing in on itself. Also meaning embrace which I liked. To 'Unearth' I guess is the opposite process, but the images seem to appear in this way when I am working. In 'Midnight Walk' I wanted the title to suggest that these paintings are about a passage of time, an experience, rather than a view or a window onto the world. The rest should speak for itself.

Mist Gathers, Red, 90cm x 110cm

Crossing the Ford, 90cm x 110cm

More Drawings

All drawings are unframed on A4 paper with an inch white border in charcoal and clalk.

Charcoal and Chalk

All drawings are unframed on A4 paper with an inch white border in charcoal and clalk.

Gorsgoch

Gorgoch - Glow (Gorsgoch translates to 'Red Marsh') is taken from a series of paintings. As is typical with Oke's work it is an emotive response to landscape.The elements and textures of nature and of weather-worn man-made structures are mixed up and distorted in this patchwork-like geometry.

Where I am coming from

I always find it difficult to put into words why I paint the way I do, I came across these notes that I'd written. This made more sense to me than a lot of finished peices of writting I have written:

From memory, glazes, distorted and manipulated. Memory of darkened, enclosed spaces, visually ambiguous. Welsh rustic, memory of living, cold wind, sanctuary. Not of this landscape but an expression of this landscape, these moors, and sometimes emotional struggles. Using geometry, like burying, excavation. About warmth, weather, shelter, earth. Mixed up, shifted, into blocks, taking sections of colour and moving them around. The textures of nature and the man-made juxtaposed, combined, churned up, distorted like burning embers in a cave, an abandoned barn or a section of mist..

tryptic

 

Gorsgoch - Burn, Oil on Canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

Gorsgoch - Glow, Oil on Canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

Gorsgoch - Mist, Oil on Canvas, 90cm x 90cm.

SOME FINISHED PAINTINGS

Unearth, Oil on Canvas, 90cm x 90cm

Dawn, Oil on Canvas, 90 x 90cm

more work in progress

working again

I've finally found a studio, which isn't easy in this area. I've moved into a 3 bed house, I'm using the spare room as a studio. It feels good to be painting again. I've been doing some graphic work, cd cover and flyer for freinds and some drawing but no painting for some time. I'm happy with the direction of the work. I've been developing technique of using glazes. There is still much potential and unexplored territory here. The colours are becoming dirtier and have become warmer and richer in the paintings I'm working on at the moment. I have found that put colours straight from the tube yields better results. It is difficult to predict what will happen, but I am beginning to understand how colours behave when they are layered on top of each other. Painting in this way is a painfully slow process, allowing each layer to dry fully before moving onto the next. These surfaces appear rustic, heavy, downtrodden. I take these paintings many different directions before arriving at their conclusion, ripping them apart and pulling them back together again. I like the metaphor of an aged and battered surface, painted rusty metal. Of course it's not all about the aesthetics of the surface I am attempting to describe awkward and uncomfortable emotions, dark and complex internal struggles and battles. I don't know whether this comes across in thw work. Well, I'll carry on painting anyway see what happens.

WORK IN PROGRESS

New Painting

Some interesting developments in texture in this painting. Although there are parts of this painting that I like, maybe it has become slightly overworked. Not yet titled.

Enfoldment, Oil on canvas, 90cm x 90cm

some new images

Thinking about my next paintings

My next painting will look some thing like this. I'm going to loosely base them on this idea I've created on Photoshop from my previous paintings. I want to start going for earthy reds and golden colours, creating warmth, but still using dark rich colour. It fits with the landscape up by my studio too, barren moorland.

Statement for Newbloodart.com

Geoffrey Oke lives in Aberystwyth and has recently completed an MA in Fine Art at Aberystwyth School of Art. His recent work suggests landscape, but doesn’t describe it literally.

His paintings are drawn from a variety of sources, drawings of Aberystwyth, photographs of aged surfaces which he has collected and images created on Photoshop. Through their built up surfaces we can call to mind emotions and memories we have of places and times.

Photoshop Images

These images were created from my charcoal drawings and textures I photographed around town.