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Mike Tyson, the world renowned art critic? 'Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth'

THIS WEEK I am exhibiting artworks 5-8 May 2022 at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead, London. I have free tickets, contact me if you would like a pair for any one of the art fair days starting tomorrow! Come and visit my artworks at stand i7, they will be exhibited with Linton59 along with other fantastic artists.


'The First Temple'

Photography is a wonderful image-making process but it does have limitations, especially when it comes to conveying the texture and nuance of painting. One of the key elements in my work is the sheer weight and accumulation of paint on the surface of the canvas.


'The First Temple in a Room' Detail

This heavy impasto of oil and cold wax is an essential component and part of my visual vocabulary, my voice as a painter. Conveying the visceral nature of oil paint, with a digital camera is a tall order, so I have used strong directional light and a macro lens to reveal the tactile qualities of the work. I hope they give you an indication and a sense of the physicality of my recent landscape paintings.


'The First Temple in a Room' Details peter corr painting trees
'The First Temple' Detail

I am sometimes asked how I start a painting? where do I get my ideas from, and what am I trying to achieve? I could tell you that I plan each composition with a series of plein-air sketches and that I work from these exploratory ideas in my studio before transferring the final design to canvas.


I could say that I build each successive layer of oil and cold wax systematically, but this would be a lie. It isn't that I don't have a plan, of course I do, it would be impossible to start without some aim, a notion of where you might be heading.

'The First Temple in a Room' Details Peter Corr painting trees
'The First Temple' Detail

However, any plan soon comes up against the harsh reality of what this material called paint will allow you to do. To be honest, paint has a lot in common with my cat, it has a mind of its own and refuses to be coerced into any role or action it has no intention of carrying out. Mike Tyson was also clearly on to something when he famously said 'everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth'.



Paintings have a habit of 'punching you in the mouth'. I have pondered the conundrum posed by painting many times and yet I am still very far from finding a satisfactory answer to the age-old dichotomy between representation and abstraction.

'The First Temple in a Room' Details Peter Corr painting trees heavy paint
'The First Temple' Detail

There is a constant pull and push, a tug of war in both directions where the middle ground is littered with the debris of unfinished ideas and half glimpsed possibilities.


In this painting for example, the composition is deliberately awkward, an accommodation of modernism; you may discern elements of impressionism, fauvism and expressionism also in this work. The paint is applied in unseemly thick layers, often provisional, tentative scouting operations, wandering behind enemy lines. A welter of colour both obscures and reveals in equal measure, brief appearances are unceremoniously removed and just as inexplicably, reinstated.

'The First Temple in a Room' Details Peter Corr painting trees
'The First Temple' Detail

A game of chance and necessity, as if pinning the tail on the donkey were a matter of life and death.


The composition is another battle ground; the vertical, rhythmic and regular nature of the trees has more to do with preserving the flatness of the picture plane than suggesting spatial depth and recession, but it is still a compromise, a kind of aesthetic fence-sitting. But I have noticed something else, something outside of my preoccupation with the conventions of seeing. The regimented line of trees is perhaps more than a pictorial device.

'The First Temple in a Room' Details Peter Corr painting trees
'The First Temple' Detail

Considered from the perspective of symbolism you could be encouraged to see the trees as a continuous wall or make-shift barrier with hardly space for a body to pass through.


Extending the metaphor, they become upright prison bars, preventing entry and escape, separating us from the 'secret of things'. It has been said by many writers that 'Painting' is an irrational activity with no clear utilitarian value, but the interplay of line, tone, texture and colour makes silent demands on all of us, if we are prepared to allocate time and look beyond the immediacy of our initial sensations.

'The First Temple in a Room' Mixed media painting by peter corr on canvas
'The First Temple' Mixed Media on Canvas

Thank you for reading my latest art blog post! Hope to see you at the affordable art fair this week! Find out more information below!


Upcoming Exhibitions and Art Fairs - 5-8 May

I will be exhibiting abstract landscape artwork inspired by the Fenlands in Britain at the Affordable Art Fair in Hampstead, London this May 5-8. I will be exhibiting with Linton 59 and Darryl Nantais Art Gallery is representing my artwork at Stand i7. I do hope you can be there and see my artworks up close.


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I would love for you to subscribe to my Art newsletter where you will discover new selected artworks, art insights, inspirations, painting techniques, straight to your inbox, as well as invitations to upcoming art fairs, galleries and exhibitions so that you can visit my work in real life! If you like, you can scroll through more of my art gallery displaying a selected range of abstract landscape paintings.


Art Buyers and Collectors: How To Buy Paintings by Peter Corr?

If you take a look at my art gallery and would like to purchase an original oil painting, you can email my Art Representative, Karl, at The Darryl Nantais Gallery Ltd on karl@linton59.co.uk or get in contact via the contact form on his website https://linton59.co.uk/contact. Please add the name/title of the artwork in your message. It may have already sold, but if that is the case, don't worry, you can request a commissioned piece and get a painting you will love.

If you would like to contact me directly with any questions or comments, feel free to use the contact form.





 

Thank you for reading my contemporary art blog. Please take the opportunity to look at my collection of paintings in the online gallery. All of my paintings are original artworks on high-quality canvas frames. If you are interested in purchasing a specific painting, please get in touch to check current availability or to discuss a commission. Please contact me.

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