Trudie will use this six-week residency to push the boundaries of her work. It is hoped that the space at Grays Wharf will enable her to “create an experiential environment, amplifying the planes of colour with three-dimensional paintings that explore the use of different ‘canvas’ materials”, as she makes work that literally pops out of the canvas, transitions out of the canvas and bounces on and off the walls, the canvas and other three-dimensional pieces around the room. After her residency, Trudie will be holding a week-long solo exhibition at Grays Wharf gallery.
Trudie describes her paintings as “pure, luminous fields of colour” which contain “transparencies and opacities that act as both a visual and an actual layer over one another”. She contrasts “colours, the paint, the surface and the application method”, and explores “control and restraint in the painting process”. Trudie aims currently to expand these concepts in a three-dimensional form as the paint and surfaces are amplified into physical expanses, planes and fields become “important in their own right and not simply an optical illusion”.
Trudie will be supported by artist practitioner Naomi Frears, a painter and tutor at the St Ives School of Painting. She is inviting viewers to join her virtually as she documents her residency online. You can find Trudie’s blog post describing her preparations here.