Text by Chris Shaw

 

The studio at the top of Eleanor Bartlett's garden allows her to make large paintings. There is also a basic stone shed nearer the house for working on wooden boards and three dimensional objects. A painting begins with the preparation of the support which consists of constructing a wooden frame and sizing and priming canvas. This helps Bartlett establish an understanding of the boundaries, size and possibilities of the painting.

 

She uses heavy, industrial materials: tar and metal paint, chosen for their workman-like qualities. She also uses wax. These materials are part of the fabric of everyday life and they form the foundations of her subject matter. Bartlett's preoccupations are universal in scope. The world as a construct of perception frames her thinking and problems to do with the nearness of the void pervade her work. Materials, she says, should possess the power to persuade without recourse to explanation.

 

Painting as object, negating the idea of representation, is the unsettling terrain Bartlett leaves us in.