22/11/2001
Drawing
ecArt, London
Basil Beattie and Frances Aviva Blane are British abstract painters of two generations. However, they both share a love of paint, although they use it in different ways. Beattie and Blane produce large paintings which speak of something primitive. They present work that may appear straightforward but is powerful, tough and confrontational.
Basil Beattie & Frances Aviva Blane
Basil Beattie and Frances Aviva Blane are British
abstract painters of two generations. However, they
both share a love of paint, although they use it in
different ways.
Beattie and Blane produce large paintings which
speak of something primitive.
They present work that may appear straightforward
but is powerful, tough
and confrontational.
Beattie uses a language that does not make a big
distinction between abstraction and representation.
‘ My paintings are abstract to me... I put things that
have references to psychological and emotional
concerns... but I am trying to paint them in a way
that is not illustrative.
I am fascinated by the representational element - it
gives me large and small, a sense
of distance. There’s intrigue as well; the curiosity of
corridors, colonnades, archways, cloisters...
Perhaps an image - a door or whatever - may invite
thoughts of escape; but the sheer physicality of the
means prevents there being an escape from the
language of the painting.’
Blane makes tangible the indescribable. Her
attention to mark-making and gesture direct her
work.
In her most recent paintings Blane seeks to explore
a pictorial space where things ‘go wrong’ visually;
lines disconnect, paint drips and splatters. In short
everything is extreme. The quality of paint, the
colours used, and the tempo of the pictures. This
extremity is the height of pure emotion. It is a
statement about being alive.
Drawing is important for both artists as a practice in
itself. Although they make large paintings, both
Beattie and Blane produce small drawings. Beattie
uses oil stick, graphite and Chinese ink, flooded with
water. Blane uses mainly charcoal on paper. Both
succeed in evoking deep emotion, mood and
atmosphere, and making drawings as sensually
charged as their paintings.
Beattie was short listed for the Jerwood Painting
Prize 2001.
Blane was an Award Winner at the Cheltenham &
Gloucester, Open Drawing Show in 1999.
23 November - 21 December 2001 wed-sat
12 - 6 pm or by appointment
For further information and visuals please contact:
Angela Diamandidou t+44 (0)20 7729 7555 f+44 (0)20 8455 4548 mb 0770
394 1515
ecArt: 26 Great Sutton Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1