Within my work I am interested in developing further a contemporary abstract painting practice within a shifting theoretical and cultural climate. The use of hybrid forms and and diverse elements in my work alludes to notions of difference, multiplicity and fragmentation. My paintings and installations attempt to break formal rules.

maria garton

links

about my work

maria garton CV

home page

galleries

painting gallery 1

painting gallery 2

installations

to tell you the truth

the waiting game

langworthy

the ground beneath her feet

I use aspects of the everyday in my work and incorporate influences from the domestic landscape for example fashion, advertising, interior décor which reveal fragments of encoded histories. I usually choose materials in many ways for my installations, predetermined and by chance, found objects from second hand markets such as hand crotched doilies, linoleum, wood and other fabrics or I will go out and of my way to buy an object that I think will form some kind of relationship with the ideas I am considering at that particular time. Colour is a very important aspect of my work. I use colours that are part of contemporary culture eg; fashion prints, wallpaper, advertising billboards. I also appropriate colours from art history eg pop art and op art and incorporate them in to my work. I use various types of paints within my work including oil, acrylic and household paints to create different qualities and textures. I also like the idea of using oil paints with it's high art connotations contrasted by the use of household paints with it's associations with low art. My works are an invitation to the viewer to engage in a dialogue with art history and contemporary art practice