J.P. Tormey

Artist

My abstract paintings employ contrast to reveal the dualities I find in life: chaos and order, light and shade, organic and geometric, female and male. They are completely process-based and my materials alternate between acrylic, oil, canvas, wood, and paper. They are a build up of multiple translucent layers striving for spontaneity and freedom through variation of calligraphic gesture. The use of a vibrant color field unchains energy and emotions. The top layers, or the “deletions,” brings order to chaos. This destruction limits, yet also creates the attraction to the back layers. Light can only be appreciated by the addition of a shadow and the top layers create a plane of interference with compositional keyholes, views to the surface below. The effect is of forms backlit from a jumbled world.
I would like for my energy and positive attitude to transcend the piece. The bottom layers are outgoing, and exude vibrancy, but the effacing of the top layer pushes me to explore the possibility of the piece. It takes the painting one step further from destruction to creation.

J.P.Tormey