This exhibition will show an eclectic mix of Chapman’s well-known industrial paintings and his newer, more natural work.
“I received an artist’s grant from LARAC after I had been painting a few years. I chose a subject that was complex and difficult to render – the inside of a local mill (Finch Paper). I think that by choosing a subject so complex and rich I was either forced to improve or fail. I chose “improve.” Since that series had worked itself out I was faced with some more choices. I was able to render landscapes with some degree of control but I didn’t find that general subject complicated enough. The landscape controls what you paint and where the objects go. I wanted to complicate that dynamic. Just this year, I have started painting close ups of different natural subjects. They are images of real things so I am still told where to put this or that but in the overall, the complex surfaces with deep shadows and brighter hi-lights have ‘sucked me in.’
