Callum Innes

Callum Innes works in series, allowing processes to build upon each other and gradually evolve. He makes several kinds of painting at the same time, each discreetly different yet informing and reflecting upon the others. The Exposed Paintings and the Untitled series exemplify his technique of creating a play between addition and removal.

In these works, successive layers of oil paint are applied to the canvas, which is then entirely covered in black. This in turn is removed by repeated washes of turpentine dissolving paint from part of the surface, here leaving all but the faintest veil of slightly striated pigment. The remaining black part of the canvas is then painted with another colour, resulting in a luminous, shifting surface that evokes different registers of colour, surface and even time.

The Tondos are made using heavy, round plywood panels and while the methodology of their creation is broadly similar to other works, their making requires an entirely different interaction with the hand of the artist. Unlike canvases their surfaces are rigid rather than giving, requiring a different approach to the application of paint; some are gesso-ed prior to painting while others are varnished which causes the paint to react in very different ways to the works on canvas.

The circular format also demands a different physical engagement, abandoning the clearly defined straight edge of the canvases. The sides of these new pieces are important in a new way, slightly bevelled they give the feeling of expansiveness, of moving outwards. For Innes, working through the challenges posed by the new surface and format of the Tondos has in turn influenced his approach to working on the rectangular canvases.