Untitled (Blue)

Lisa Denyer

A smudge, an imprint. Residue. On initial glance, there’s a speed to Lisa Denyer’s paintings. Perhaps her lines of dragged paint, wet on wet, give echoes of the marks our fingers make on a touch screen. Or maybe they signify the process of painting, of moving around paint in search of solutions. Quickly, however, we register the depth apparent in her works. This is a physical depth, the result of layers of paint and gradual build-up. We look at Denyer’s materials and see, amongst others, sandpaper and chalkboard paint. In common, both of these materials imply an impermanence. in conventional use, sandpaper is an abrasive material used to remove layers on old material, often paint. On the other hand, chalkboard paint provides the ground on which one draws in chalk. Of course, chalk lines can be removed with a damp cloth. They are inherently impermanent. Such layering of materials and their associative characteristics creates meaning: a metaphorical depth accompanies the physical. Denyer’s paintings, as such, ask us to take a moment. We are asked to reflect on the painting’s materials, on their use, and perhaps above all, on painting’s ability to slow things down and to provide a pause, a break from the speed of our daily lives.