Stephen Rinn

Statement
 
I make small paintings, usually oil on linen, with supports I have built and prepared myself. This is part of the process and care needs to be taken with the preparation. The paintings are abstract and can at times be very gestural or may even be less so if I am seeking a quiet presence. My work takes reference from many notes of sensation, memory of place or an event, jazz music, the surroundings of the everyday, and may at times refer back to the history of an earlier work. The incidental small things observed, often over looked provide a source for enquiry. Something seen during the day, a shadowed space, a discarded shape, or a pattern, may suggest  the course of a mornings work.
 
Colour, shape, line and pattern are what I work with. Who knows why such incidental observations catch us off guard and hijack our concentration. Maybe it is all about possessing the found thing itself. When I begin a work, there is a period of blind rumination, and then I try to find a way in and open a dialogue with the image. Working within this unknown reality I then probe for a position to see what is possible. During the process there can be many changes, rubbing out, redrawing, changing colour hues. The discourse  begins when the work is finished. This provides movement and more continuity for this new found  reality.  I try not to get too caught up with the factual, side stepping it if needs be. The aim is to convey the sentiment if That can be possible. Uncanny as it may be, an image may be directing its own path and how it should go on.