Playing with Perception: an exhibition of paintings by Caroline leaf

About

Caroline's films, which use beach sand and paint as mediums, are renowned for their painterly technique, virtuoso camera moves, and captivating storytelling. In this new phase of her development as an artist, Leaf’s interest in process continues to compel her: “I chase accidents which have energy. I watch edges for meaning. Perception hangs on multiple and delicate inter-relationships within the image. A single stroke of paint can change the whole. This is exciting.”

The structure of her images is now the story, and this structure becomes increasingly complex and intriguing. Her process with paint is improvisational. She sculpts with light, adding and taking away strokes of light and shade in order to discover the image. The seed idea is a memory, and the final reveal is spatial. The importance of mark-making and of the basic elements of visual language — shapes, edges, and colour — lead her to abstraction.

“It has taken many years to evolve my art of paintings that don't move, my fine arts studio work. When I make animation, individual drawings are unimportant. It is their displacement in relation to the film frame, the change between the drawings that creates perception of movement. Necessarily, these drawings are line driven and simple. All through my animation years, on the side, I was experimenting with drawings that did not move. These were like a daily visual diary; I was storytelling about myself, and was often a figure in these drawings.  Over time, the figurative element has become less important, and concerns about mark making, the composition of the 2d surface, and perceptions of space, depth and content have become my interests.”

This show of recent work offers viewers abstract and organic spaces to enter and contemplate.

www.carolineleaf.com