Lucent

About

The language of Burt's paintings is one of discovery, of a found image, an experiment. The paintings work in reverse , beginning with a dark undulating ground, gradually out of the darkness an image begins to materialize and impose itself on the canvas. The paintings throw up many different sorts of figurative references yet ultimately refuse to be pinned down, remaining elusive. Nebulous forms appear to be on the cusp of either appearing or dissolving of becoming or receding. The paintings compositions' although ordered by way of a grid or a contained form is never constrained, rather that of something in flux. Translucent layers are formed over a period of time with each layer progressing and developing the painting whilst simultaneously integrating and responding to what has come before, revealing the paintings' history, and creating a sense of time and space. The process by which the paintings are made masks' their construction, thereby adding to their uncertainty; The forms begin to emerge in a manner similar to that of a photograph in the developing tray, the paintings do indeed have a photographic quality which adds to their illusionistic credibility and ability to appear as something real and tangible despite being abstract marks made on a flat surface.