Artists

Margaret Watson

It is continuously seductive - that point when the known world of stretchers, nails, glue and canvas becomes instead a non-objective, visual world full of potential, the threshold of which is the blank surface. Across the threshold is the opportunity to depict space. Flatness, surface and pattern are continually referenced but deeper space, through figure-ground ambiguity, juxtaposition of forms and color relationships, invites entry. Conceptual space is suggested in the known and unknown areas between overlapping edges and fragmented shapes. Landscape represents space and is my inspiration. I paint in series - memories of time and place in nature. In response to the vastness of landscape, framing works to contain the view, to suggest an aspect, to evoke a window into, to summon a certain intimacy. The line of the horizon and vertical pull of both gravity and growth form a grounding grid. The paintings are constructed not conceived. The materials guide my process. Chance plays a role, helping to distance my trained hand and encouraging a personal remove from the work. The challenge is to keep an honest and open response to subsequent mark-making allowing consideration and specificity but without calculation. It is a process that ultimately requires standing aside and letting the forms evolve and resolve the painting.

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