Works in ‘Mark Dunford: Spaces: Paintings and Drawings’ at Browse & Darby reflect a process that “is investigative” in which “what is discovered remains a mystery until the painting or drawing stops; there are no preconceived results or outcomes”. Most of the pictures in this exhibition are made directly from motifs in Cornwall and, recently, Italy. Dunford says: “I am driven by drawing how beautiful something appears, trying to look as hard as I can, balancing observation, invention, and imagination. My paintings take time, so they must deal with change, the thing changes, and my perception changes.”
Writer, artist and editor, Rupert Loydell notes that: “Although rainbows or skyscape, trees or fields, fruit or flowers are the ostensible subjects of his work, Dunford is more interested in how to use a certain colour to catch light and colour even as it evolves minute by minute”: “It would be easy to categorise Dunford as a landscape artist, a still life artist or – to a lesser extent – a portrait artist, but that would be to miss the point. Dunford quite rightly considers that both abstract and so-called realistic painting share the same language of colour, shape, form, rhythm, tone, dynamic and colour. Any sense of ‘recognition’, empathy for, or engagement with a painting’s subject matter or implied narrative is a bonus, an added extra, and is not the main focus of this art. If you cannot see beyond the flower or river or view, then you are missing out on ‘the bigger picture’. (Sorry!) These paintings are not realist, evocations, or ‘nice pictures’; they are complex, hard-fought skirmishes with the very nature of visual perception and human understanding. If we pay attention, they can challenge our assumptions and expectations as well as delight us.”
