Painting as Movement — The Body, the Hand, and the Picture Plane

A painting captures the movement of the artist's hand as it travels across the canvas — constantly in motion, applying and removing pigment, shapes, and marks. The eye traces this movement, pausing momentarily before continuing its journey across the picture plane. It is impossible to perceive a painting in its entirety at once. Perception ensures that we continually construct and reconstruct the image in the mind, much like a scanner that resists straight lines and uniformity. To describe painting as a form of dance is closer to the truth than it might first appear — a dance focused on the movements of the wrist, hand, and arm, with occasional steps back to assess the whole.

'Night Shade' 80 x 80 cm Oil & Cold Wax on Canvas

'Night Shade' Detail

Paul Klee and the Inner World

Paul Klee recognised that the reality we have been conditioned to accept is, in many respects, a fiction. We navigate our lives like sleepwalkers, acting as though we understand what life should be and how it should be lived. We are instructed on how to see, think, know, and comprehend — yet our understanding remains partial and provisional. Klee's paintings resonate with the inner world of the spirit and the transcendent realm of the heart and mind. For him, the physical act of painting is essential: it serves as a reminder of our material bodies, our mortality, and our dual nature as both observers and the observed.

'Night Shade' Detail

The Symbolism of Trees and Forests

The symbolism associated with trees is ancient and far-reaching — encompassing themes of enlightenment, wisdom, protection, and guidance. Forests amplify this power. They tower over us and endure for generations, serving as silent witnesses to events long past. The forest floor is alive with constant activity: decomposing matter, fostering new growth, sustaining cycles of renewal — all without seeking recognition or reward.

In my own work, the forest recurs not as a subject to be described but as a presence to be inhabited. It is a threshold — a space in which the familiar becomes strange, and in which the act of looking becomes something closer to listening.

Forest Paintings by Peter Corr at the Affordable Art Fair Hampstead 2022