GALLERY 3:

In a hard-edged abstractionist phase, mid-career artist Clive Stratford paints searingly sharp lines between his colour forms with fine sable brushes and pedantry – no artist’s tape allowed. Shapeshifting is a collection of contemporary varnished oil paintings in diamond and oblong shapes, adjacent expressionistic oil studies on cardboard.

Works that at first glance seems entirely non-objective, actually coolly depict urban settings – and their windows, buildings, containers, skylines, et cetera.  

The gesture of wiping colour off the brushes artfully generates his smaller cardboard compositions. They juxtapose colours in a gestural, purposeful mess – a vigorous contrast to the Stratford’s pure minimalism. Shapeshifting is a great demonstration of the myriad possibilities for abstract painting