GAVIN J PLANT

My paintings explore the space between control and instinct where emotion, memory and the physical act of making come together.

Working primarily with acrylic and oil, I create layered abstract paintings through gesture, color, texture and form. I begin without a fixed image or predetermined outcome, allowing each work to develop through an intuitive process of making and response. Marks are built, obscured, disrupted and sometimes rediscovered. The surface becomes a record of that process, a physical trace of decisions, impulses and moments of uncertainty.

I am interested in what remains beneath the surface of experience. Memory is fragmented, emotions shift, and things we thought were buried can unexpectedly resurface. Through layering, erasure and the tension between revealed and concealed forms, my paintings explore the ways experience is retained, transformed and reinterpreted.

There is a constant negotiation between structure and spontaneity, intention and surrender. I embrace the imperfections and unexpected moments that emerge through painting, allowing them to remain visible as part of the work's material and emotional character.

Returning to painting after a period of personal loss, I developed a practice rooted in observation, intuition and the possibilities of abstraction. Experiences, places and the passage of time inform the work, but are not directly depicted. Instead, they become part of an ongoing process of translating feeling and memory into physical form.

By leaving space for ambiguity, I invite the viewer to engage with the work through their own experiences, associations and perceptions.

For me, painting is less about arriving at an answer and more about discovering what happens along the way.