2005

Lyrical painter and philosophical dreamer, Richard Dunlop selects from his everyday environment particular objects, places and situations that intrigue him visually and that also carry the possibilities of symbolism. One is aware that the eye is always a motivating, controlling factor in Dunlop’s work. The visual excitement that the materials and elements of painting – gestural line, glowing colour and sumptuous surfaces – may directly express in them is, as he says, the integral issue in his art. The indivisibility of colour, space and gesture is stressed in each of his pictures and when they are seen in series, as in this exhibition, this feeling of interconnectedness increases, linking the paintings one to the other and creating an overall sense of the artist’s organic process.” – Sue Smith, 2005

“It is not a photographic space. It is a memory space, but one which is based on reality.” – Peter Doig, 2005

“Richard uses ancient glazing techniques to subtly expand the pictorial possibilities, and to be really open to what is going on within the abstraction of the picture plane. He comes up with all sorts of strange colour combinations you couldn’t possibly dream of in advance or even mix on a palette, because it has to happen within the chemical interaction of the glazes and the action of painting itself. It has to be done on the run, a dance with chance.”Stephen Lees