Ronnie Rennoldson

My current paintings are parts of a narrative exploring memory and a sense of place.
All narrative is perfected by retelling to develop new layers of understanding. Memory works this way; it is what you choose it to be. It is a truth wrapped up layers of emotion and self-deception.
This is where my art lies.

These new paintings explore the disparity between what was and what is remembered while exploring the potential for personal reinvention enabled by the silent detachment that comes from displacement. They are not comfortable paintings although they contain areas of serenity but these paintings are part of a series of twelve that calcify the process of coming to terms with loss. Together they form a self-portrait.
Once the twelve paintings were complete, I went back into all of them to soften or harden the narrative as a form of catharsis: experience changes memory.

Using squeegees, stiffened paint brushes and palette knifes for detail, these paintings start with a narrative. A line covered by a broad field of paint develops the narrative into which signifying marks are made and over which specific details are layered. Non-figurative landscape elements that create a notion of place merge with fixed points and specific memories to create a single abstract expression.

Canvas is left unpainted either as vestigial space to allow the subject to breathe or from a belief that what isn't said also has value; the canvas merely records a fleeting moment.