Caught in a Sudden Downpour (9)

Mark Bletcher

Notable Achievements 2023
Notable Achievements 2021
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A hammer lies on the table amidst what looks like fruit, most likely apples. It is a scene that repeats itself, or at least has iterations. Elsewhere, the same hammer reappears. We see other tools: a pair of scissors and a scraper. There’s also more fruit, sometimes scattered on the table, sometimes in a bowl. Yet, if to speak of iterations implies progress, this would be wrong. Rather, Bletcher’s paintings propose multiple possibilities. They engage in a sort of gameplay, inviting us in. 

Titles push and pull our understanding. One painting recalls a friend’s visit, the next references Greek mythology. In reality, the content of the paintings is true to both. It feels an artificial distinction to separate life and myth and Bletcher appears keen to avoid painting binaries, rather they merge together. Maurice Merleau-Ponty writes of Cezanne's desire to avoid the "ready-made alternatives suggested to him: sensation versus judgment; the painter who sees against the painter who thinks; nature versus composition”. In many ways, these words feel as valid today as they did in the late nineteenth century. Bletcher’s paintings are unsparing in openness, giving us time to grapple with the painted surface, the subject matter, myth and identity.