Clare Woods
http://www.clare-woods.com/work/ Some flat shapes and other quite three dimensional strange forms. Oscillating between figurative and abstract, quite surreal, from tame landscape which, albeit remind me of neo-romantics Graham Sutherland, Paul Nash or Ivon Hitchens, to the other extremes of quite scary looking anthropomorphic portraits approaching a resemblance to those of Francis Bacon. So it came as no surprise to me, when I further researched her work that there is in fact some influence of Graham Sutherland. Other shapes and forms appear to be purely abstract but their titles imply a relationship with objects or parts of the body such as ‘Pot bound’ or ‘The Voice’ or my favourite – ‘Collage for Barbara’s Knickers’. Several paintings are composed of predominance of fully saturated synthetic looking colours, while others – deep rich blood reds, black and greys are monochromatic. Luscious brush marks of oil paint are clearly visible occasionally combined with mottled spray paint. I find intriguing the way some forms have a hole somewhere within them, making them look hollow, reminding me of polo mints, so exposing the background.
Clare Woods, Pot Bound 100 x 99 cm Oil on Aluminium 2016
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