charles burwell

Containment (Yellow Figures), 2008, Acrylic over Screenprint, 18 1/2 x 15 1/2, Containment No. 2, 2008, Acrylic over Screenprint, 18 1/2 x 15 1/2, Red Bio, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 37, Flamenco, 2007, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 36, Clusters with Yellow Ground, 2005-2007, Oil on Canvas, 84 x 66, untitled, 2008, oil on panel, 24x24

The work I've been doing since the early 1990's involves a specific layering process. They mostly rely on the interaction of the controlled dripped line, maze like linear forms, and organic and geometric forms. The paintings are constructed one layer of forms at a time, starting with layers of drips that have a specific color structure. The forms I use are part of a constantly evolving vocabulary of shapes that began with organic forms I started developing in the early to mid 1980's. At that time I was interested in pre-history, and used forms derived from biology, archeology and natural history. When developing images I still sometimes refer to the biological diagrams and photos I've collected over the years. Now however, they have become simplified, are less illustrative and are more general or ambiguous. The forms have their own developmental process involving genealogy and hybridization. A shape may have a familiar quality, but it remains uncertain whether its origins are organic, or derived from an industrial product. The development and evolution of the paintings are integrally connected to the evolving nature of the forms. I've developed hundreds of templates of varying sizes, for solid shapes as well as for liner forms. Symmetry, asymmetry, anthropomorphic, geometric, biomorphic are some of the categories of forms I use.

read more of his artist statement here and see more work here.