Geoffrey Oke

Battersea Affordable Art Fair

2012-01-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

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.

2012-01-31T08:26:00.000-08:00

(not yet titled), Oil on Canvas, 107cm x 107cm

(not yet titled), Oil on Canvas, 107cm x 107cm.

2011-09-17T12:08:00.001-07:00

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.

2011-09-09T05:18:00.000-07:00

Mist Gathers, Red, 90cm x 110cm

Crossing the Ford, 90cm x 110cm

More Drawings

2011-01-29T05:22:00.000-08:00

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

Charcoal and Chalk

2011-01-29T05:12:00.000-08:00

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

Gorsgoch

2011-01-29T04:57:00.001-08:00

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

2010-12-22T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

2010-09-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-02-19T10:48:00.000-08:00

Unearth, Oil on Canvas, 90cm x 90cm

Dawn, Oil on Canvas, 90 x 90cm

more work in progress

2009-12-09T04:47:00.001-08:00

2009-10-20T11:22:00.000-07:00

working again

2009-10-04T12:48:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

2009-10-04T12:24:00.000-07:00

New Painting

2009-10-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Thinking about my next paintings

2008-12-09T16:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-05T03:41:00.000-08:00

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 attempt to describe it literally. He takes a long time working on each painting, building up layers of glazes. He demonstrates fluency with this method of working. Looking at these paintings we get a sense of something buried but partially revealed.

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

2008-12-04T13:19:00.000-08:00

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

Patina Photography

2008-12-04T12:47:00.001-08:00

The weather-worn boats in the harbour fascinated me. They provided inspiration for the process of scraping back layers of paint.

Click to enlarge

2008-12-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Me by the caravan at Jeff's house, near Trefenter,
Wales. I'll be staying here when I'm using my studio

2008-11-21T05:58:00.000-08:00

I've found a studio in remote location in Wales, near Bronant. I'm going to update this blog with photos of the location and pictures of work in progress and dairy enteries of thoughts about my work.

Interior Landscape Series

2008-10-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

All four are Oil on Canvas 3ft x3ft

2008-09-05T13:01:00.000-07:00

Oil on Canvas 6ft x5ft

Details

2008-09-05T12:59:00.001-07:00

Statement about my recent paintings

2008-09-05T12:53:00.000-07:00

As a starting point I used drawings of the harbour in Aberystwyth, from there I derived the geometry for later work. An interest in the aging process of painted surfaces first spurred me to engage with painting. I became particularly interested in the patina on the sides of boats in the harbour. Layers of colour worn away by the sea and sanded down by the owners. This evoked ideas of time, accident and the effect of weather on a surface which translated, in my own work, into a sustained effort of scraping back layers of paint to reveal what had gone before. Over time the work seems to dictate it’s own direction; previous accidents or ‘mistakes’ becoming as or more important than areas I had previously considered to be crucial to it’s success. Throughout their making I have shifted emphasises and the geometry of their composition, also I have departed radically from the original source. They became more about memory, the memory of being in a landscape, or simply the experience of day-to-day living and how this experience surfaces during the painting process. Memory isn’t a succession of still images but an interweaving of various stimuli including the visual but also emotion and tactile and auditory stimuli. The challenge then is how to translate this into paint. The use of glazes has allowed me to take these ideas further, allowing areas to show through translucent glazes and building up subtleties through layering areas of colour, like the accumulative effect of experience on memory. The fact that the work suggests landscape, perhaps an industrial wasteland, without depicting it literally is of interest here. They have come to represent an emotive interior landscape.