Blaze by Kate Vassallo

Size (cm): 80 x 94
Acrylic on canvas
“Blaze” was repetitiously and ritualistically built up slowly with thin layers of acrylic paint, applied by dragging a brush in a repeated radial direction. The colours obscure or merge as layered, changing visually over time in relation to one another. Similarly, as the geometric shapes that make up the painting transparently build, their straight edges appear to visually soften.

I wanted to push softness and ambiguity in this work, while creating complex and dense patches of colour. While making work, I like to consider chance in relation to agency, intuition and labour. I wanted the painting to have a sense of history and memory imbedded in it. My aim is to use the surface and material to capture and communicate time and light, while eliciting soft sensations of space and memory.