Steve Singline, Still Point
"A significant proportion of this show is developed from the dimensions of a 27cm square. By establishing this small building block it enabled me to create a format that could be multiplied out as I enlarged the scale of the works, particularly the panoramic seascapes. Making these decisions about the scale of the works prior to commencing the painting ensured that the works would create a spatial narrative in the gallery. That each work would be able to stand on its own after the show, but also support each other as a part of a greater whole in the exhibition.
The horizon is a recurring theme that I have explored in my recent painting. The uninterrupted horizon, particularly when viewed across a body of water can be rich with symbolic meaning. It can be the mystical place where the ‘eternal meets the temporal’, where physical space meets the intangible, unreachable space. It is in these moments when the atmosphere and climatic elements reveal or blur what is beyond us as our gaze is drawn off into the distance.
I am often asked about the locations of the seascapes in my work as there are no identifiable physical characteristics or markers to help the viewer locate the work to a specific place. The absence of a jetty, shipping channel marker, cliff face along the Great Ocean Road, or a lighthouse, etc. This is because the paintings are not paintings ‘of…’ but rather works inviting the viewer into the space of the horizon. The place of calm, of reflection, the ‘Still Point’. They are painted in my studio where I recall a sense of being or aspiration (the hope of being) that is connected to that 'Still Point' of the horizon."
'For this latest series of works, I have returned again to the ocean. The calming waters, the stretch of the horizon, the great expanse of sky. The works speak more of yearning than a pictorial representation of a specific place. 'Still Point'... a moment, a sense of being present with the great beyond.'
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