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Sunday Salon 7 | Between Sea and Sky
New works by Fred Sorrell
9th June 2019
A Saturation Point project hosted by Patrick Morrissey and Hanz Hancock.
©Copyright Patrick Morrissey and Clive Hancock All rights reserved.
“When studying colour in nature and watching how it splits, bounces, reflects and absorbs, I ask myself, ‘ How much am I not seeing?’”
Inspired by the rhythmic, weaving flow of form and the complexity of colour and light in nature, this new body of work engages with the liminal space where these observations and ideas are forged into abstract paintings. Sorrell considers each painting’s overall structure, scale and composition, working to push the action of the colour within it.
The works in this exhibition are primarily on wood panels, painted in acrylic. Chosen for their smooth appearance and immaculate white ground, their scale is predetermined by a series of studies that are reworked on paper and in collage; thickness of line and proportion of colour relative to the ground are also factors in deciding the final scale of ‘colour bars’.
The resulting permutations of modular frames help structure the process of looking and aim to achieve new situations that find a balance between tension and harmony. These rhythms of interwoven colours and line in Sorrell’s paintings explore the subjective nature of perception and its connection with circumstance. How we feel affects what we see; with all the subtle shifts and variations of light and colour, our experience of the present is as adaptable as nature – it mirrors how we feel.
While these works deal with our highly personal, temporal perception of space, their titles take the viewer back to the point of inspiration; something that can be shared and has universal meaning. Words such as Field, Dapple and Spring Time Rhythm reference a location or season, tracing a part of the inspiration and process behind it. In this way the layering of colour within compositional space connects with the rhythm of cyclical change in nature, and the marks made can reveal the steps taken to share the meaning he has found through his own working process.
Fred Sorrell was born in London in 1984, where he lives and works. He graduated from Falmouth University in 2008 with a B.A. in Fine Art Painting. Exhibitions include ‘Shot’ at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London; ‘Rushing to Paradise’ at The Royal Standard in Liverpool; ‘Shade’ at Twelve Around One Gallery, London and ‘Stop, Look, Listen’ at The Cob Gallery, London, ‘Daydream’ at M&C Saatchi. He has curated collaborative project spaces within STRARTA Art Fair, at The Saatchi Gallery, Century Club, The Saturday Club Trust and for Glass and Daydream Network magazines amongst others. He was an artist in residence at The Florence Trust, London in 2012/13.
