Paul Battams 'Bush. Water. Fire. Rock'

July 18 - July 25, 2024

Join us for the opening of this wonderful exhibition of paintings on Thursday July 18th from 5:30pm at 175 Pitt Street Sydney. Views of a Landscape approached in various ways The exhibition consists of a selection of paintings that explore a variety of techniques. It’s long been clear to me that it’s essential that my painting process moves back and forth through a formal approach towards abstraction and back again, it keeps me on my toes and teaches me much about creating my work.    There’s this thing about the inevitable battle between the will of the artist and the will of the painting. I can encourage certain things to happen in a painting however, often they have their own way of getting to where they must go. I look out for  ‘Happy Accidents’, and relish how they lead the way to somewhere else. For me, colour is the life force, the soul of a painting. When I think of Monet, I revere his relentless search for a deeper understanding of how colour works and how to use it. There were no other footsteps out there where he chose to go. For me he changed everything, he will always be the GrandMaster. I didn’t know I was bipolar until diagnosed at age sixty four, somehow I’d managed to get through using art and music, I was self medicating and didn’t know it. Painting has gotten me through some horrendous times. When I’m severely punished by my mental health, painting is my refuge, I doubt I could survive without it.   Paul Battams says: ‘My paintings are a perfect disguise for the trouble and anxiety they put me through’ ‘Paintings are a series of visual experiences left over from a rigorous enquiry’ You don’t have to understand what it is you’re doing when you’re creating, or even why you’re doing it. It’s simply the doing of it that counts.