Meet the Artist: Katrina Dallamore
My work is concerned with the exploration of contrast in colour and form, my practice is based in the mediums of oil painting and silk screen printmaking.
I am exploring contrast and formalist colour ideas, in the context of Itten and Albers, which are furthered by Riley’s move from observational painting to a reductive, absolutist approach. I have adopted the vehicle of the square motif in a gridded setting, selecting a small range of colours/tones to explore how the colour grey and subtle uses of creams can achieve both soft and bold contrasts, experimenting with frames within frames and the playful miss-registrations of colour.
I am interested in the colours created by primary and secondary harmonies with a particular interest in greys; I want to reconsider colour in its purest form. I am starting a reductive process where almost everything is taken away and then reintroduced with consideration. This has taken courage, I have no idea where it may lead me but it is a personal journey I feel compelled to engage in. I am concerned with the gap between representation and abstraction, and the ideas between simplification and complication, is this progress? This reductive way of working can be difficult for others to understand; therefore I hope to present a clear path to explain my work.
In both painting and printmaking I am using a method of overlaying various layers of paint to create contrast and structure. In painting I am working in a traditional method of primary artist’s oil paint on handmade two foot square structures, of pine wood to support a linen canvas. The canvasses are then prepared for oil paint using rabbit skin glue followed by oil primer. I am using masking tape and paper stencils to create shapes within shapes to produce clean edges.
In silk screen printmaking I am using primary colours of acrylic paints on standard paper, printmaking through hand cut paper stencils.
This is a discovery through continuous exploration and activity, with the printmaking leading the way for more considered painting concepts which I hope will in turn inform the printmaking.
This process could be developed by introducing a wider range of geometric shapes and exploring different colour palettes.
I see my work as part of the tradition of painting that includes Hans Hofmann, Josef Albers, Johannes Itten, Ben Nicholson, Barnett Newman, Agnus Martin, Ad Reinhardt, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Ryman, Bridget Riley, Frank Stella, Paul Huxley, Matthew Collings, Callum Innes and Zebedee Jones.
After studying observational colour harmonies with the life model my work has naturally developed towards this reductive practice. I observe that I am starting to see things differently, I am becoming aware of the most subtle changes in colour and the exquisite simplification of form and this is very exciting.
On completion of my BA I will commence a Masters by Research at Canterbury Christ Church, where I will further develop my interest in colour in a reductive practice.
