Hidden in plain view

I think it was Mark Twain who said on hearing a new piece of classical music “I am sure it is a lot better than it sounds”. This resonates with my response to some contemporary art. I am suffering “conceptual” fatigue? The modern art galleries that I visit are increasingly exhibiting artworks which to me are non visual. How it looks seems to have become secondary to the 'idea'. The visual 'hook' that captivates me and makes me want to linger and perhaps discover the artists motivation is lacking.

Paradoxically, I have always thought myself to be a conceptual artist. I don’t see things and want to paint them but I attempt to create visual metaphors that explore my life experiences (and hopefully gain some insight). Every decision that contributes to making each painting is made on on a 'like / dislike' basis. My images are purely intuitive. Ideas may be ‘screened’ to avoid clichés or sentimentality but generally I don’t analyse too much. They then hopefully reveal something of myself to myself - sometimes, embarrassingly, things that I would prefer not to have known or revealed.

However convincing the 'realism’, they are not to be taken 'literally’ - they are visual metaphors. My artworks only appear 'realistic' because that is the way I visualise things in my mind’s 'eye’. Curiously, I have realised that the clarity of the style is deceptive in that the viewer is often lulled by the apparent familiarity of the style into making false assumptions about the imagery. I have found that in art, as in life, things are rarely what they seem and I have become fascinated by the way that clarity and simplicity can disguise a complexity that reveals itself only gradually.