Amy Martin
Acrylic on canvas
30cm x 40cm each
My acrylic A3 paintings explore how light interacting with objects creates subtle shifts of shadow, tone and perception. Working primarily with white painted cardboard boxes and a transparent box, I create carefully arranged compositions that allow light to become the central subject of the work. The monochrome palette emerged from my time in college and from then I have adapted it into my everyday work as I was fascinated with monochrome paintings and the ability to strip away distraction I have tried to include colour into my paintings but I felt it wasn't the right direction. By reducing colour the viewer is encouraged to focus on the relationship between form, light, shadow and space.
The placement of each object is deliberate. Boxes are positioned to reveal how light falls across their surfaces, how shadows are cast and overlap and how transparent structures alter and contain light within the composition. The transparent box acts as a physical object and capturing reflections, distortions and subtle tonal variations and changed that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Through these restrained arrangements, I investigate how ordinary forms can become sights of visual complexity. The work invites close looking, encouraging viewers to consider the quiet effects of light and the ways perception is shaped by the simplest of objects. By focusing on neutrality and reduction, I aim to make the presence of light itself visible.
Through these restrained arrangements, I investigate how ordinary forms can become sights of visual complexity. The work invites close looking, encouraging viewers to consider the quiet effects of light and the ways perception is shaped by the simplest of objects. By focusing on neutrality and reduction, I aim to make the presence of light itself visible.