“Ross River Screen”, 2015

James Brown

“Ross River Screen”, 2015

Oil on Canvas

Size: 60 x 60 cm

What I find interesting when looking at paintings executed a decade or more ago is how the fundamental structures of my paintings are repeated. I can even speak with confidence in looking back that I like a clear vertical line in the centre of a composition. The reason why I lean to this central placement of a vertical, whether this might be a tree or a line created by the abutment of two forms, must have some deeply rooted significance buzzing around in my head. Mindful that many quirks have an origin, there is likely to be a very good reason why I shouldn’t try to find an explanation or I might end up trying to disguise this disposition if the answer is too weird to accept. Certainly, in this painting there is also a fascination with gaps between trees—the “negative” spaces—and these naturally framed gaps have always been a pictorial device that I enjoy playing with, in terms of a visual play between the reality of tangible forms of trees and the “other” world of intangible voids.

In looking back to the time when I made this painting, I recall wanting to explore the idea of “exploding” negative space (the voids) between trees with the vibrant colours of leaves and a tangle of spindly branches set against the suggestion of a river in the background.