Miranda Townsend
My paintings derive from things I have seen in nature. The images may be large or small - colossal landscapes, rocks or mountain ranges or anthills, plants or trees. Large or small there's always too much to say and paring down the images is always a struggle. What I try to do is to abstract key essentials from the original image without losing too much of the wonder that I experienced on first sight. I may refer to photographs I have taken but the image is shaped by an emotional response rather than any exact reproduction. Shadows' for example is the story of different moments on the same sandy beach. Not all of it is real. ' Garden' derives from a moment in my own back garden where colours and forms constantly change.
The techniques I use are largely dictated by the images I am working on but colour and texture are always important. I've recently been restraining the use of line in my painting and will be looking to develop more actual depth, still working mainly with acrylic paint but extending the the range of techniques I use. I am attracted to artists such as Joan Mitchell and Willem de Kooning and the freedom with which they use paint. I love the riot of colour in Joan Mitchell's paintings. It is that free approach to composition and use of paint - common to many artists I admire - in the paintings I work on from now on.
