Ashley West

I am interested in the intuitive process by which a ‘world’ emerges, through interaction with the materials I use and the visual language of abstraction. For me this process requires an openness, a willingness to take risks, and a critical faculty, which I don’t assume are given. Significant relationships in the paintings emerge through trial and error, ‘serious play’, and a search for a kind of truth or integrity. Forms or configurations appear like affirmations, but they are only possible through their wider relationship with neighbouring forms and the composition as a whole. The work is difficult, and so are the paintings, yet the direction is one of letting go, and allowing something unexpected to take place.