JAMES GEMMILL: IN FLUX

16 May – 25 May | Weekdays 4pm – 7pm | Weekends 11am – 4pm
Pembroke College Art gallery

One of the characteristics of my paintings is that they are thickly layered. This is because I tend to paint over many of my images, sometimes discarding the first one altogether when I doubt that it has produced the result that I intended. Painting over previous pieces is, in a sense, analogous to how we live.  We think that we make a new start with each new day, but we carry our experiences and circumstances with us. We each have histories. For me, working on my previous art is working on creative history.  The images, shapes, colours and textures from previous pieces are crucial in the outcome of the final piece.  This process of deconstruction and rebuilding is how I work.  Of course, the hope is always that the final piece will be better, will say more, say enough… but even if they are not perceptible as images, vestiges of the earlier versions or underpaintings are indelibly there – an emotion, a fragment of my time, a moment from a forgotten day.   – James Gemmill

Entrance is free

© James Gemmill, Walking past the Radcliffe Camera
178cm X 180cm, acrylic on canvas