Kathryn Haug

My practice revolves around the physicality of paint, and the manipulation of paint to make new versions of things from reality. I aim to make the paint very obvious in my work, so the texture and consistency is evident: the thickness, stickiness, drips, blobs, streaks, scratches. It is something that awakens the sensation of touch, and invites the hand to touch, despite painting being a ‘visual’ art.

I enjoy the balance between controlling the paint and allowing it to be just paint: making careful, descriptive marks in some places, while letting the paint drip, smear or run in other places. As a result my paintings often have representational elements as well as abstract elements.

My work also investigates the act of making a representation of something directly from life. When working from life, as opposed to working from a photo, the subject matter is constantly changing, if only by small degrees, in colour, position, light, mood, etc. The sun moves over the landscape, or the model grows tired and his posture changes. This requires me to make quick or concise observations: to obtain some kind of grasp on the information before me while it remains relatively the same. Working from life also allows me to get a better understanding of aspects of the subject, such as colour, shape, light, texture and mood. I prefer to work quickly and complete the painting in one sitting if possible so that the paint is wet the whole time I am working on it. I feel this unifies the surface of the painting and allows the material qualities of the paint to show more clearly.

I choose my subject matter mainly based on its potential to be made with paint: often it is the three dimensional shape and the colours that interest me, or some possible relationship that can be made between the object and paint. I also choose subjects based on a sense of familiarity or memory. This gives me another level of understanding about the subject which may allow for greater accuracy or suggest alternate ways in which it could be made with paint.

I enjoy the look, feel and manipulation of paint: I want the viewer to experience this too.