Geoffrey Robinson

PAINTER & PRINTMAKER

Words should fail me, but they never do!

STATEMENT

Every now and then every exhibiting artist is asked if they would supply their artist’s statement – frequently an invitation it’s advisable to decline if at all possible.

However, I have never resisted the temptation myself and, in fact, I have found that the excuse to wring some words out onto the page provides a periodic opportunity to actually discover what I think: still inadvisable, but nevertheless what I seem compelled to do. Sorry!

It seems impossible that each passing year brings about change in my work that is completely unplanned. At the turn of the century the totally abstract paintings I was producing were swiftly overtaken by the still life pictures I paint today; that was a huge development that happened, almost overnight, as the result of a chance comment made to me by Lynne Strover (Lynne Strover Gallery). The changes that happen under normal circumstances do so, unnoticed, while I am concentrating on all the other processes that go on during the production of a painting.

It’s a scary thing when you think about it. In order to avoid formulaic results it’s obviously necessary to follow up ideas whenever they present themselves and use instinct as the measure of their worth, but who’s to say where these gradual changes are taking me? It could be over the edge of a cliff; and that’s a fall I never want to take. I’m relying on my age to lead me closer and closer to the magic that hides within every stick of charcoal and tube of paint, but I’m also old enough to realize that it is absolutely impossible to reach any sort of final destination. There just isn’t a station at the end of this line — if there was, the journey would be over.

So there’s nothing else to do except keep shovelling coal into the boiler and take an occasional look out to see where we’re going. I’m still making simple art documentaries and even thinking about attempting some drama videos; I also now spend quite a lot of my time on creative writing. I suspect it might all be making good firewood to shove in with all that coal.

Geoffrey Robinson – 19th December 2008