Ben Brotherton
Please click on the links to the left to see the paintings.
Personal Statement
My paintings are executed in front of the motif. The choice of subject is dependent upon some point of visual interest – the inky blackness of the Stour perhaps, or the view through foliage towards two blue rectangles. I think that painting from nature may be an attempt to understand the world; it allows me the opportunity to engage with its constituents. From the infinite chaos of experience a painting might be distilled.
Some of the painters I am interested in are Bomberg, Cézanne, Chardin, Corot, Diebenkorn, Hitchens, Matisse, Morandi, and Sargy Mann. What strikes me about their paintings is the painted surface, quality of light and pictorial space. Bomberg’s notion of “the spirit in the mass” has become an important idea for me. I believe his statement articulates the tension between the energy invested into the painting by the artist, and the energy resonating from the motif. It is a desire to understand the subject and the subsequent painting.