Exploring the Abstract – A Journey Through Colour, Form, and Imagination
by Graeme Webb
I work primarily in abstract painting. My practice is rooted in a fascination with the emotional power of colour, the rhythm of line, and the layered histories that can build up on a surface over time. I like to think of my paintings as conversations between gesture and structure, between spontaneity and control, and ultimately between the artwork and the viewer.
I didn’t come to painting through the usual route of formal training, I was a photographer in the 1960s, a model maker, bookbinder a tinkerer. These experiences gave me a sensitivity to composition, material, and process that still informs everything I do in the studio. I approach the canvas like a construction site, building, layering, erasing, rebuilding. What might look spontaneous is often the result of dozens of adjustments and decisions, intuitive, yes, but also deliberate.
In much of my work, especially the more geometric mid century inspired pieces, I use repeating elements circles, lines, spirals and box like forms. These “glyphs,” as I sometimes call them, give the eye something to hold onto amidst the chaos of colour and texture. You’ll often see bright, saturated colours reds, yellows, deep blues clashing and dancing across the surface. But if you look closely, you might also see remnants of earlier marks, ghost shapes and echoes of scratched lines that hint at what’s underneath. I like that idea that nothing is ever fully erased, just painted over like memory.
Contrast plays a big part in how I work between the rigid and the free, the precise and the chaotic. You’ll see that tension in works where crisp circular shapes float over wild brushwork, or where delicate ink lines weave through a sea of loose colour.. I use a variety of materials acrylic, cold wax, ink, oil pastel, sometimes even collage because each one behaves differently. That unpredictability keeps me engaged.
One of the recurring forms in my work is what I’ve come to call the 'Evolution of the Pod'. These soft, organic shapes often suspended in white space emerged from experiments with ink and natural pigment. They’re a quieter part of my practice, but they carry just as much emotion. Where the layered abstracts are dense and loud, the pods are contemplative, almost meditative. They speak more to growth, fragility, and transformation. I intend furthering this investigation using inks made from natural hedgerow ingredients.
Ultimately, I don’t want to tell you what my work means. I’m more interested in what it feels like. Abstract art, to me, is a space of freedom for the artist and the viewer. It doesn’t need to resolve into something recognisable. It just needs to resonate. If a shape or a colour stirs something in you curiosity, discomfort, calm then the work has done its job.
So I invite you to spend time with the pieces. Let your eyes wander. See what catches you. The meaning isn’t fixed it evolves as you engage with it.
My influences include Jean Michele Basquiat Cy Trombly Ben Nicholson
@graemewebbart
Add comment
Comments