A Shared Experience

Paintings by John Grice, Pete O'Sullivan and Kevin Tole.

Pete O'Sullivan: "My work, in the main, is concerned with depicting texture and shape derived from the landscapes which I have spent many years exploring. One theme that has inspired me over the years has been the dry stone walls of Dartmoor which combine strong shape with intense texture. Another continuing theme has been architectural ornamentation, and I have been fascinated with decorative stonework, particularly at Saltram House and Mount Edgcumbe Park. Recently I have become interested in the texture and shapes of trees, particularly those in Dartington gardens. A lifelong connection with rock climbing has bred in me a great love of the grandeur and architectural majesty of the cliffs of the South West. Many hours spent watching the play of light on the textured surfaces of rocks, always aware of the sheer power of the sea, has led my work to become somewhat introspective and concerned with detail."

In this exhibition, Kevin shows figurative paintings of china clay pits, alongside more recent abstracted works inspired by deck plates on the oil rigs where he works.
"I see my work as a reflection of place, first and foremost - whether that place is offshore on an oil rig, standing with a rock reflecting on landscape or simply the broken planes and fragments of paving stones you might see when out in the city. Place becomes the linking factor and the struggle is to make people feel the essence and the nature of place. The material qualities of painting are also important to me, whether that is space against space, the process of mark-making or, for want of another word, balance. After working on pieces for some time they begin to take on their own voice, to speak for themselves and to dictate their development through painterly manipulation of the pictorial surface.
I do have a close attachment to landscape and in particular to geology.
These recent pieces have come out of a period working offshore. But the 'eye' is still there even if the landscape becomes a deckplate and path and its associated colours and patinas. Since moving back to the south west in 2010 I have intensively developed this association through studies of recollections of rig 'landscapes', through work on Dartmoor, studies of old mines and quarries and the China Clay workings. I see the time I spend outside the studio as in no way separate. It feeds into me as a painter and forces a line of investigation in my work. The offshore work is almost as fundamental as the painting, and it broadens my knowledge and allows me to experience visual references which I would otherwise miss."

John Grice has completed a series of large portraits and still life paintings in which he aims to challenge expectations through the use of conventional subject matter in traditional form, and attempts to reveal psychological states by a variety of illustrative means: birds, leaves and berries cluster around each head, poetic metaphors alluding to an inner world. Potential narratives are supported by titles to the pieces that make connections with ‘the precarious tension of opposites’ written about by Graham Sutherland with his references to the hairsbreadth between joy and sorrow, beauty and betrayal, stillness and clamour.

"At the heart of representation is the problem of reconciling the experience of seeing with the fixed image of the thing seen. The creation of a work of art brings together sources of inspiration, elements of design, principles of organisation and proficiency with the use of materials through long practice.
I enjoy viewing works of art that are well crafted and that manage to achieve a unity within the visual field. My pieces are carefully researched and realistic in appearance. I like to imagine that a painting is like a book cover: a distillation of a longer narrative and an invitation to draw out ideas and feelings that might lie in wait to be discovered."

For more information visit http://www.harbourhouse.org.uk/gallery-posullivanjgricektole13.html