LINDA ROCHE

These paintings have their logic in the structural use of the grid and the workings of gravity against viscosity. Constructed through a systematic application and removal of paint, once the pigment has been applied and allowed to drain, the system is reemployed to determine what areas of paint to then remove. Sometimes large passages of paint remain, sometimes almost nothing; just a few scraps. This process of putting paint on and then taking it off is repeated across a predetermined timeframe. Over time, as the residual areas of paint accumulate and begin to overlap, the surface begins to fill and multiple planes develop within the painting. Form and colour becomes more nuanced as the density of the image increases.

This body of work specifically investigates the colour variation and nuance that comes through a systematic yet random layering of pigment on a surface. Four pigments were mixed to make each painting. Within the gridded surface there are sections with several layers of colour and some with just one. In making these paintings I was interested in the colour shifts that occurred as the pigments intersected and built up and also how this layering determined visual weights and activated temporal relationships within the paintings.

This four-part work is a deconstruction of the four colour layering process that was used to make the Colour Studies. The first colour was laid across all four canvases, the second across three, the third across two, with the final canvas being made up of all four colours.

In this series of paintings composition was determined by the movement of light across a surface. A blank canvas was hung on my studio wall. The point where the sun hit the canvas and a shadow was formed was recorded at five-minute intervals, between 9am and 11am, on the 23rd April 2011. The paintings within the series track this movement, marking points in time across the two-hour period.

This body of work specifically investigates the colour black. Ten different shades of black oil paint were selected across ten different brands. Pigments were mixed and each was titled and numbered. Various physical and procedural systems were then employed to construct a series of paintings using some or all of the ten pigments.

10 shades of black oil paint (1: Le Franc: Peach Black, 2: Old Holland: Vine Black, 3: Sennellier: Carbon Black, 4: Norma: Neutral Black, 5: Mussini: Mineral Black, 6: Art Spectrum: Transparent Black, 7: Fragonard: Intense Black, 8: Winsor and Newton: Mars Black, 9: Michael Harding: Ivory Black, 10: Winton: Lamp Black)

These paintings were constructed using six different shades of black oil paint selected across six different brands. Pigments were mixed and numbered: 1-6 and a dice was then thrown to determine the composition for each painting.

This body of work documents the material properties and qualities of different pigments, the subtle variations in terms of how they each operate. The process used to make the paintings allows the pigment to slowly drain across a surface. Each painting unfolds as a response to, and may be seen as an articulation of, the interaction between system, pigment, canvas, gravity, sun, temperature and the time that it takes for the painting to unfold. 

The Control Panel was a functionally oriented development that evolved alongside the Pigment Studies. Although initially developed in order to archive the movement of colour in studio process the daily documentation of each pigment was integrated into my process as a means to establish currency. When making the Pigment Studies I generally worked with my pigments every day and used them quickly. I found however that after a period of not working in the studio many had congealed or separated and formed a skin on top. I reconstituted these pigments but discovered in using them that some of the colours started to come away from the surface when they dried. In remixing them the ratios I strictly adhered to had come unstuck and the pigments had become unstable. This was valuable information and as a result the daily documentation of each pigment was integrated into my process. As a consequence of this documentation and archival process, an image was constructed over time.