Artist Statement

The title ‘Dreams Memes and Manifestations’ is an attempt to describe my most recent collection of paintings, which span a period of 12 months. The process by which I paint can demand a lot of thought. But I try to contain this thinking to the technical aspects of painting – how to achieve effects of colour, questions of composition, light and texture. In terms of the painting’s contents, I try to do as little direct thinking as possible. For me ‘thinking’ seems to disrupt the process. The fresher, more authentic paintings result when working from feeling and intuition rather than intellectual design. I reach to remain responsive to the disorderly images which float through my mind, seizing upon ideas quickly before they lose clarity. Only when the works are complete and I start to see patterns between them, do I allow myself to become interested in any meaning which they might have.

Dreams

The works are always strongly connected to whatever makes up my visual diet at the time of painting. I am strongly influenced by classical painting. In recent years I have become fascinated by the power and the postured beauty of eighteenth-century portraiture, in particular the work of Joshua Reynolds. Despite their obvious formality, the portraits are strangely ethereal. I have spent many hours looking at them, trying to absorb and understand their magic. The female figures in Reynold’s paintings are often nestled in darkness, seemingly lit from within. They appear like floating clouds in their diaphanous, luminous dresses – and it is this tender, Dream like quality which I wanted to explore. Several of the paintings in this exhibition began as ‘master copies’, but derailed along the way in to more off beat interpretations, as I began to play with their composition and introduce layers of neon and opalescent colour. Inescapably, the internet makes up another large part of my visual diet.

Memes

A Meme is defined as ‘an image or video captioned by text, typically humorous in nature, copied and spread rapidly by internet users’. In the midst of a sophisticated digital landscape, the meme is a stubbornly ‘low brow’ currency of communication. Memes (like paintings) are essentially a one frame narrative. Yet (just as paintings) they have the power to engage and entertain us. They are basic in format, but they succeed in expressing something complex about our human experience - and for this reason they are charming. The meme crystallises the moments of humanity, which are both funny and touching, and it is this kind of observation (of sweetness or absurdity) which I am often drawn to paint.

Manifestations

Manifestation is the idea that an individual can bring their material desires or emotional ambitions in to being by achieving a clear, internal dialogue with themselves about what it is that they want. It is a topic which enjoys a lot of attention on social media channels, and the language has crept in to these paintings. I can't speak for the efficacy of practicing manifestation, but I find the concept irresistibly optimistic. Painting is an act of manifestation in itself; something spiritual and unreal becomes real. My lifestyle might not afford me a Chateau or a Chandelier - but I can dream of one and I can paint one. I think that there is something sweet about this. Our dreams tell us something important about ourselves and what we value, whether or not they become true. Manifestation also refers to the psyche and forms taken by the subconscious mind. Ghosts and paranormal visitations, both human and animal weave themselves in and out of the paintings.

From the meeting of these disparate elements a kind of Eighteenth-Century style surrealism emerges. Old worlds clash with New. Moments of Classicism collide with moments of childishness creating a tension between the Romantic and the pedestrian. There is a tension too, which is at the core of my painting – the push and pull between the discipline of accuracy and representation, and the looseness of energy and feeling. At times the works push into the dreamy world of soft lose marks and vivid colour, only to pull back in other moments into a structured figurative observation. For me, it is in the space between the two that something truthful is reached. Ella Kilgour