Louise Ritchie

The canvases for On Time are saturated 2-dimensional compositions that engage with the fundamental language of painting. Line, colour and form are to painting as words, grammar and syntax are to writing. Together these form an indexical process that traces every decision, layer and erasure as a close reading of the entwined fibres and gentle folds within the raw, unstretched canvas. Released from conventional frames, the edges are untethered and free to converse directly with the wall. The paint travels through the weave, following threads like desire lines through a material landscape or matrix, sometimes taking refuge in watery creases. There are near imperceptible boundaries between the outer skins of each colour where the surface tension of the water surrounding the pigment tries to resist its neighbour. Eventually it yields, and floods, without persuasion, into the next saturated space, mixing hues as it goes. These vital poetic spaces, much like words on a page — are where thoughts and ideas collide, form and reform into patterns, order and meaning.