The Persistence of Painting

My work is organized around a trio of generative systems and methods realized over time. These organizing systems are abstraction, the grid, and colour. These systems overlay, converge, and interact with each other through the process of painting.

Paint is essentially mud. If we look back to prehistory and the origins of the human species we see the marks left on the cave walls in paint. The persistence of painting can speak of interconnection across time and generations.

Painting is a language, and I’ve been developing my vocabulary over the past 40 years. Like any language, there’s always more to explore and understand. Painting feels like breathing, and I’m constantly surprised at what I discover through this process.

Paint lends itself to experimentation. There are always new questions to ask. I encourage the paint to drip, splatter, spread, blend, or to stand alone and speak for itself. The painting is a site for building, excavating, destroying, and rebuilding. Forms emerge and recede over time, as the painted surface transmutes into new stories and identities.

Elizabeth Barnes