SKETCHES BY ARTIST MEMBER RICHARD POPE I start all my work with tiny ink drawings produced in A6 sketchbooks. Here, my ideas are visualised, annotated and mixed together from both direct observation and my imagination. All my paintings begin life in these books - where scraps of ideas and imagery jostle together over the years to suggest possibilities for the future. When I arrive at something that looks as though it may work, I produce various studies to test the idea further. I look at how colour, scale and multiple viewpoints are to be intermixed and then decide which media is best suited for a final full-size version. All my work is auto-biographical and is based on something I have seen or experienced in the near or distant past. No matter how abstract the imagery, my work always makes reference to the real world – albeit one that interweaves shifting places and time-scales. I use a range of media and mark-making processes and work regularly, back and forth, with precise, controlled ink drawings and watercolours to larger more coarsely-grained paintings. I like to explore harmony and counter change using observed abstract patterns and stylised motifs. My work encourages the eye to wander through the composition and to seek associations between the interconnected parts of the painting and the world at large. I hope the spectator will take a little time to examine my work and to establish new connections for themselves.
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