Journey, Myth and Transformation

Where is painting at today? Does it have meaning, value, and purpose? Is it still relevant? These questions are uppermost in the minds of 12 artists with a broad range of experience in the visual arts, who come together every week for the Advanced Painting Workshop at Morley College.

Painting has long been considered a lost art and yet evidence abounds that it is still very much alive and indeed thriving. Why is this?

To these artists at Morley, the answer is clear – painting reaches the parts that other visual media can only aspire to! Their belief is that painting is needed in today’s art world more than ever before. In a culture dominated by new media and instant visual gratification, painting continues to offer a window for questions that today are rarely asked, let alone answered, by a market obsessed with the “now” and the “new”. Painting is a medium that addresses the eternal truths that we all struggle with – and it fulfils the need for an art that reflects the difficulty, mystery and ambiguity of life in the 21st century. The now is easy; the eternal takes a little more time… What inspires today’s painters is, to borrow from Delacroix,…”not new ideas, but [an] obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough."

In this exhibition, each artist has interpreted the theme of Journey, Myth and Transformation in their own way. There is a wide variety of approaches – both figurative and abstract – ranging from the urban, through to the lyrical, the organic to the political. Each brings a personal vision but the energy and interaction within the group has also been the catalyst for change, new directions and growth.