Liz Coats, Interdependence

Liz Coats ‘Interdependence’ 1 - 22 August, 2020

Interdependence

The paintings in this exhibition titled Interdependence are relatively two-dimensional, while my intention in making them has been to share an understanding of colours that are alive to the senses.

As I work with the substance of liquid paint on receptive grounds, the shape and spacing of each colour mark will directly influence the formation of the whole field. Each painting becomes a kind of aggregate where colour shapes multiply and shift as I engage with them.

I’m interested in ways that local atmosphere influences colour choices and the relational impact this can have in painting construction. This is not a desire to represent nature per se rather, it is an acknowledgement that our sensing body is part of organic nature.

Implicit knowledge garnered through perception of colours and the connective fabric underlying surface appearances can be a generative source for paintings that are not representational.

Dimensionality in colours as we see them and the relationship of colours to paint media remain constant benchmarks.

On picking up a stone, for instance, what first draws my attention is the colour and how this corresponds with the ambience of the surroundings. On closer inspection a unique stratigraphy is revealed, telling of substances within that make appearance what it is.

In the collection of Geoscience Australia I was struck by how eloquently those small samples of cracked open rocks reveal traces of elemental pressures, temperature and erosion that formed them.

I was reminded of philosopher of science Henri Bortoft’s analysis of Goethe, in particular Goethe’s thinking about a dynamic or active way of observing the coming-into-being of objects. How to distinguish them through relations between the parts and how these function within the whole object so that sensory perception and cognition are brought into alignment with active phenomena.

During the past year, through all the shifts in living conditions, these paintings have been influenced by changes in circumstance along the way. A viewer may choose to identify likeness in one or other of them according to their own Instincts.

Liz Coats www.lizcoats.com.au

cat. 1, Terrain, 2019, acrylic on linen, 72 x 70.5 cm

cat. 2, Blue/Green Aggregate, 2019, acrylic on linen, 73 x 72 cm

cat. 3, Frolic, 2020, acrylic on linen, 71.5 x 70 cm

cat. 4, Maze, 2020, acrylic on linen, 69 x 72.5 cm

cat. 5, Ferment, 2020, acrylic on linen, 72 x 71 cm

cat. 6, Bluegrass, 2020, acrylic on linen, 72 x 70 cm

cat. 7, Tasting Red, 2020, acrylic on linen, 71.5 x 72 cm

cat. 8, Rich Earth, 2019, acrylic on linen, 70 x 72.5 cm

cat. 9, Forest Bathing, 2020, acrylic on linen, 69 x 73 cm

cat. 10, Fair Weather, 2019, acrylic on linen, 72 x 70 cm

cat. 11, Red Core, 2019, acrylic on linen, 69 x 73.5 cm

cat. 12, Split Rock, 2019, acrylic on linen, 70 x 73 cm

cat. 13, On Balawan, 2020, acrylic on linen, 70 x 72 cm

cat. 14, Lunaria, 2019, acrylic on linen, 70.5 x 72.5 cm

cat. 15, Mapping Ground, 2019, acrylic on linen, 73 x 70 cm

cat. 16, Rose Garden, 2019, acrylic on linen, 72 x 70 cm

cat. 17, Red Rock, 2019, acrylic on linen, 70 x 72 cm

cat. 18, Rough Weather, 2019, acrylic on linen, 72 x 70 cm

cat. 19, Bloodstone, 2019, acrylic on linen, 70 x 73 cm * not on display

cat. 20, Heath, 2020, acrylic on linen, 71.5 x 70 cm * not on display

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