SARA FREEMAN

This Floating World

[gallery 2]
My paintings from a distance look almost blank, just fields of subtle colour, but as you come closer the apparent emptiness is revealed to be layers of webs, translucence and possibilities. The rippling illusion of repeated white lines creates a questioning of what is really happening on the surface of the painting. I love the way viewers will come up so close they just about bump their noses on the work, trying to see what is going on or how it has been made.

I resist trying to write definitions, as ambiguity is one of the wonderful aspects of art, but in one sense, these paintings are about connectivity. The threads could be a search for the underlying fabric of life, a level where all is linked, that sense of oneness reflected in Buddhist philosophy. The veil-like images could also represent our dreamlike perceptions that separates us from knowing this oneness. The spaciousness of the field of the painting - the no-thingness of the compositions, allows a different kind of perception to roam, an inner world with its beauty and mystery. I wonder if the busy, information overloaded, hyper-stimulated world we are creating is making us less attuned to life's subtle current. In making these paintings I let the sensuous nature of the materials find their own way, while the meditative process of repetition guides me like a chant. The textures that arise are subtle and beautiful, and encourage a closer looking at the world around us. A crumbling wall, a weathered slab of concrete, a peeling door can open up a singing realm of possibilities.
To view available works from this series please make your enquiry through the contact page.