Ross Marklew Born 1983 Halifax

Lives and works in Cardiff

ross.marklew@btinternet.com

www.axisweb.org/artist/rossmarklew

Artist Statement

During the final year of my degree, on a whim, I produced a monochrome painting of my studio space working directly from life. This painting was a breakthrough for me. It abandoned the traditional picture space constructed using perspective and instead introduced, an ambiguous, flattened out and softer-focused space.

All my painting over the last two years has sprung from this initial piece. I soon started working from photographs taken on my travels to cities across Europe and America, expanding my subject matter from interior to exterior: to include culturally important buildings, parks scenes and panoramic views. In my paintings I deliberately left out certain information, so that only partial descriptions served as clues to the identity of the scene.

I constantly play with issues of selection, the handling of paint and colour-combinations. I adopt different painterly languages, from flat, linear styles to realistic rendering, sometimes to comic effect. My painting is at its best when it achieves a plausible interaction between soft, semi-realised, sketchy backdrops and more emphatic foreground detail.

Initially my main influences were the interiors and landscapes of Picasso in the 1950/60’s, Philip Guston’s abstract paintings and Matisse’s interior paintings. This rapidly grew though, to include the paintings of Patrick Caulfield, Howard Hodgkin, and Ivon Hitchens to name a few.

Alongside my representational painting I am also experimenting more with abstraction, replacing realistic forms with abstract shapes in order to question the necessity of figuration. I recognise the need to continually open up my practice to new sources of inspiration and working methods.

Education

2003 – 2006, University of Wales Institute Cardiff, BA (Hons) Fine Art,
(First Class)
2002 – 2003, Leeds College of Art and Design, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design

Employment/Teaching

2007, Cardiff, Bay Art Gallery, Leader for ‘Drawing the City’ drawing day

Group Exhibitions

2007, Abergavenny, The Art Shop, ‘Christmas Mixed Show’
2007, Cardiff, Bay Art Gallery, ‘My Terrain’
2007, Abergavenny, The Art Shop, ‘Summer Exhibition Mixed Show’
2007, Abergavenny, The Art Shop, ‘The Artist in the Garden’
2007, Penarth, Oriel Washington Gallery, ‘New Welsh Graduate Art’
2006, Cardiff, Bay Art Gallery, ‘Recent Graduates’
2006, Abergavenny, The Art Shop
2006, Cardiff, Kooywood Gallery
2006, Penarth, Oriel Washington Gallery, ‘Fine Art Graduates’
2003-6, Cardiff, Howard Gardens, first, second and third year degree exhibitions
2005, Cardiff, Jacobs Market
2004, Amsterdam, Hans Brinker
2003, Guiseley, Oxford Gallery
2003, Ilkley, Gallery 19

Awards

2005, Dulcie Mayne Stephens Art Trust
- awarded in recognition of artistic achievement

Work in Private Collection

2007, Oil on canvas, The Minster
2007, Oil on canvas, three paintings commissioned by Mr Martin Briggs
2007, Oil on linen, Garden
2006, Oil on canvas, Gemeente
2006, Oil on canvas, Opera
2006, Oil on panel, Dutch Canal
2006, Oil on canvas, Goldfinch
2006, Oil on canvas, Park