Line of vision: new paintings by Stephen Carter

‘Line of Vision’ follows on from Stephen Carter’s previous body of work that focused on London’s Westway elevated road. This new set of paintings mark a continuing fascination with the here and now of the city along with ways that the real interacts with the imaginary.

‘Line of vision’ denotes the direction of the gaze, to north, south, east or west. Each painting explicitly privileges this direction of the gaze, both in the image and the title.

Carter says of his new paintings:

“I discover my subject by walking through the city. This tends to be a slow, gradual process and has taken the form of an eastwards drift along and under the elevated roads of the A40 Westway, and this journey has now reached Paddington Basin – these new paintings are based on the spaces around the fringes of Paddington Station.

“Although the station itself is busy and full of people, these liminal spaces are quiet and deserted. The lack of light here ensures that forms are easily misread, inviting alternate readings of their structure and function. The paintings push that indeterminate state towards a flatness set against perspectival space, and emphasise the architecture’s assertive frontality – a sense that the structures block passage. There is little direct daylight, only artificial or refracted light.

“These paintings are not surrealist, but they show a reconstructed urban reality by pressing the painterly against the planned. This approach posits the idea that a painting might also be a blueprint for another project beyond painting that is yet to be realised.”

• http://www.stephencarterpaintings.co.uk
• http://www.beardsmoregallery.com
• http://art@beardsmore.demon.co.uk
• http://www.axisartists.org