Chloe Culley

Fine Art - BA (Hons)

 I am committed to a reflective and philosophical evaluation around the language of painting and more specifically abstract oil painting. My practice has a key focus in exploring surface/material properties and how colour can be used to affect our understanding of sensation and spatial awareness. My work currently makes use of monochromatic space, exploring the properties of colour and materiality across a range of scales. I work in one intense session at a time reworking the surface by exploring touch, connection, and energy, locating a conclusion before the space becomes overworked. Historical ideas around deconstructing the space of painting both physically and conceptually is key to my practice. My body of work carries key motifs including the use of the monochrome, washed out space and distinctive brush marks.

My body of work acts as an embodiment of my personal energy reflected through mark making across the surface in one colour. Often my works are made in a series of the same size, this allows the viewer to engage with them as a whole, but also on an individual basis. I enjoy working on a larger than human scale as this allows the surface to absorb my entire energy and become more dominant in space. I work using oils and utilise gravity to allow the painting to transfer my energy into its own. I intentionally build-up thin washes of transparent colour to create depth though in turn keeping the surface flat, conceptually communicating to the viewer that the painting functions as an object and as a painted space through the use of a single colour. I intentionally keep the edges of the canvas raw/colourless to act as a physical barrier and endpoint of the colour and energy on the surface. This encourages more energy and colour to flood into the space when the light hits the surface when the work is on display together.