Chris Ray

After re-discovering painting after a lengthy hiatus, I find myself, once again,
up to the eyes' in paint. *
I have a renewed fascination for the stuff.
I am intrigued by the serendipity of how it reacts when manipulated.
The ways in which a few carefully (un)considered splattered daubs,
once filtered through imagination and mental libraries, can trigger familiarity,
carry meaning or even summon up memories, is a kind of alchemy to me.
 
In terms of the fundamentals of painting, I consider Value (lightness or darkness)
as the single most important element and therefore a key area for development.
Its significance and power in picture-making cannot be underestimated.
After all, as they say, value does all the heavy lifting, whilst colour takes all the glory!
(I have taken out a lifetime subscription to that view).

​I work mainly in oil on board and for the most part from memory and imagination. That said, I also practice oil sketching, Plein Air (outdoors), as a way of enhancing that mental catalogue of what actually constitutes 'Landscape'. My intention is to take the elements and vocabulary of 'Landscape' and simply render the whole a convenient vehicle for expressive and descriptive mark making.
 
My approach is to firstly establish a semi-abstracted 'landscapey' structure. I then attempt to pursue those early marks that appear familiar to me in a more subconscious, rapid, and carefree manner. In working this way I try to capture those elusive brushstrokes that describe more than perhaps they should, whilst at the same time, attempt to free myself from the universal shackles of deep-seated facsimile, 'old hatness' and paint-blending death. Of course, that struggle to find this economy of stroke, deftness of execution and an outcome something a little less ordinary, inevitably, but gloriously, goes on...
 
* 'up to the eyes'
This was something my dad used to say to us growing up in the North East... 
​"Am warnin' ye mind, divvent come back up to the eyes in clarts !" **
Not sure if it's a Geordie thing or just a My Dad thing!
 
** clarts = mud

chrisraypaintings.co.uk

---

Chris Ray Gallery 
​Click on a thumbnail to enlarge and scroll through the images.