Tina Douglas strips back the language of painting to reveal the underlying tension between intuitive mark- making, expansive fields and the self-imposed rule of the grid.
…Douglas occupies, quite literally, a space in-between. Neither figurative nor abstract she eschews traditional three-dimensional configurations or flat, non-objective space. In its place Douglas offers a skilful (and often playful) interweaving of line, form and colour that changes dramatically from one canvas to the next. She turns the rules of art upside down. Masking tape, essential to illuminating the had of the artist in hard edge painting now helps to produce subtle texture, bleeds and runs. Unstable reflections are introduced, along with free-form molecular shapes, pulsating rhythms and the suggestion of day and night. Although these aspects have a basis in the observable world they are more felt than seen, something there, but not quite. Rodney James, Holding Pattern (exhibit. Cat.), March 2016
Lately, I have been using the grid as a tool for sectioning the picture into a series of fields. I have also been using a large long narrow format to reinforce this grid structure and further direct the picture plane.
The relationship or tension created between intuitive and the imposed rule of a large grid field interests me in both my visual and performative practice. This project will be integral to expanding this process of investigation.
Tina Douglas, 2016
Exhibiting July 19th till August 6th
