I'd Be Enlightened Now If It Wasn't For You
2 - 24 April 2022
The Window Gallery, Phoenix Art Space, Brighton
Atmosphere, acrylic on canvas, 130cm x 130cm. £3000
Bridge, oil & acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 153cm. £3000
In the Top Field, oil & acrylic & sand on canvas, 122cm x 152cm. £3000
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Michelle Cobbin’s work draws upon her longstanding interests in contemplative practices and abstract art. Her paintings explore the relationship between colour and feeling and how the simplest of images can spark an immediacy of response.
It often takes her a long time – involving much layering, scratching, scraping and smoothing – before a painting has been successfully pared down to its essentials to reveal something with the necessary clarity and balance. For Cobbin, the creative process is rarely straightforward. Like her meditation practice, it involves struggle, rumination, all-consuming fantasy and sweet delusion. Ways forward get obscured and obstructed. There are no guarantees of equilibrium or grace. She rolls with the highs, lows and don’t know’s to discover a subtle contentment that arises from the process. Paintings get resolved, one way or another. Hindrances encountered along the way – uncertainty, frustration, doubt, self-criticism – are negotiated, one way or another. What follows is the joy of completion and the mobilising of energy for a new piece. But there is a trade-off: when practising meditation her attention often wanders off to colour-drenched art worlds and novel themes for new work, thus disturbing her concentration. Time and time again, the patient meditator, calmly watching her breath, is undermined by the unyielding painter seeking her next venture. These two parts of the self may be integral to Cobbin’s art, but they don’t always see eye to eye. As in most relationships, lasting harmony is never easy. Click here to read an interview with Michelle by artist and writer Geoff Hands, in relation to this show. |
Lament, acrylic on canvas, 100cm x 150cm. £3000
Phosphorescence, acrylic on canvas, 76cm x 76cm. £1450
Hidden, acrylic on canvas, 40cm x 40cm. SOLD