PAUL DAVIES ARTIST STATEMENT

The focus of my work is primarily based on abandoned architecture. The sites depicted in my paintings remain devoid of human form, and the voyeuristic nature of the work creates a tension between the subject and its audience. The paintings juxtapose the frozen ideals of domestic architecture with the universal natural environment, and investigate these sites as portraits of space.

The work is inspired by painterly, photographic and sculptural practices by artists such as: David Hockney, Jeffrey Smart, Peter Doig, Jon Cattapan and Rachel Whiteread.

My introduction to the built environment in art was a painting my parents owned by Jeffrey Smart entitled “Man with Bouquet” 1982. During this time at school, I took art classes with landscape painter, Kel Connell. Connell taught me the basics of oil painting and omitted the human form from all work, instead focusing on built forms, such as “bush shacks” to provide the subject.

I graduated from the College of Fine Arts UNSW, with a Major in Sculpture, which has inspired my painting practice since. Shortly after graduating from COFA in 2000 I discovered the graffiti and street art practices of Sydney based artists and began employing these techniques to the sculpture I had studied.

I am currently studying a Masters by research at the College of Fine Arts, which investigates the relationship between the built and natural environment in my work. This research has manifest into paintings, stencils and bronze sculpture.