He approaches his studio practice as a scientist would construct an experiment, going to great lengths to control many variables, such as levelness, accuracy of measurements and utilising modern industrial materials. Current paintings focus on making complex work with the minimum of means.
The coloured ice forms are circular, placed in an evenly spaced grid arrangement. This ‘all over’ approach denies traditional artistic compositional devices, and also suggests the grids continuation beyond the picture plane. To Paul the grid represents order, an underlying mathematical structure, also representing a high degree of entropy, as there are far more ways for the forms to be arranged randomly than to exist in equally spaced alignment.
The ice replaces the brush as a vehicle for the application of paint, tracing and recording movement, thousands of chance interactions occur, the colour reaching out in the spaces between the forms, akin to the propagation of energy fields, or of neurones making connections. The grid structure, colour and techniques in his work are all constrained in some way, yet he does not experience any feeling of limitation. The possibilities within these spaces seem limitless.
4 months agoartgardenstudios
Love your work Paul. It’s unique and special and I hope that more get to see it and understand the process and passion behind it.
4 months agopaulditchstudio
Centred around a unique process of freezing and thawing water based colour, Paul Ditch’s paintings, composed of discreet frozen forms, melt and interact with each other, capturing the results of transformative processes; liquid to solid, three dimensional to two dimensional, order to chaos. Through painting with ice, he is exploring the nature of chance and control, along with colour, geometry and visual sensation. He approaches his studio practice as a scientist would construct an experiment, going to great lengths to control many variables, such as levelness, accuracy of measurements and utilising modern industrial materials. Current paintings focus on making complex work with the minimum of means. The coloured ice forms are circular, placed in an evenly spaced grid arrangement. This ‘all over’ approach denies traditional artistic compositional devices, and also suggests the grids continuation beyond the picture plane. To Paul the grid represents order, an underlying mathematical structure, also representing a high degree of entropy, as there are far more ways for the forms to be arranged randomly than to exist in equally spaced alignment. The ice replaces the brush as a vehicle for the application of paint, tracing and recording movement, thousands of chance interactions occur, the colour reaching out in the spaces between the forms, akin to the propagation of energy fields, or of neurones making connections. The grid structure, colour and techniques in his work are all constrained in some way, yet he does not experience any feeling of limitation. The possibilities within these spaces seem limitless.
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