Learning to Breathe by Alex Mcintyre

Learning to Breathe by Alex Mcintyre [2020]

original

ink and gesso on birch panel

Image size: H:100 cm x W:150 cm

Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:100 cm x W:150 cm x D:3.2cm

Sold Unframed

Please note that insitu images are purely an indication of how a piece may look

Learning to Breathe, Alex McIntyre This painting is about the connection between air, body, breath and space. It is to do with the feeling of inhalation | exhalation - the expansive stretch that happens in body, mind, spirit. Like much of my work the painting straddles simile, drawing on skyscape to describe a state of mind or being. It is not a specific place, they never are.

Alex McIntyre artist with Wychwood Art. Alex comments "The paintings are the result of accumulated and translated experiences. They come from a deep love for the world we live in and from a sense of awe and wonder. I hope they will speak to you of light, sky, journeys, the touch of weather or the smell of different seasons – and that they will remind you of places you have known or would like to know. The creative process of a painting has several stages. I begin by walking, running and drawing and taking ‘fast photographs’ outside. This is a way of feeling the landscape at a cellular, and sensory level. In the studio I have prepared birch or poplar panels with layers of a traditional gesso ground (a mixture of rabbit skin glue and whiting). Gesso is a sensitive and responsive material. It remembers being a liquid and communicates every minute scratch or bump. This means that the painting process is like a conversation. I create texture with a brush and palette knife or by sanding and carving back into the gesso. Thinking about the 3 dimensionality of the picture plane, I begin by using a high-quality light fast acrylic ink to reveal the textured surface and add base colour. I build on this colour ground by adding, and removing, layers of acrylic mixed media. The painting gradually evolves through an intuitive and physical interaction with the materials. I aim for a sense of balance or charge between saturated areas of colour patina and stripped back areas without paint. I know they are finished when I feel a sense of “lining up”, when the painting and I have both said enough. Often, this is when the painting tells me its name." Working as a professional artist since 2007, Alex paints from a studio in Hertfordshire, UK. She creates art for exhibitions, commissions, specific sites and through collaborations with other creative professionals.  Alex has exhibited in the UK, United States and Romania. She has work in commercial and private collections in the United States, Japan, Norway, Germany, France, Holland and across the UK. She completed a five-year artist fellowship at Digswell Arts in 2016 and has held AIR positions with Middlesex University, Brent Museum and Archives, English National Ballet, Wizard Presents Production Company and Watford Museum. To discuss any of Alex McIntyre artworks please call 07799535765 or email deborah@wychwoodart.com