Steve Burley Chewton Bushlands

This diminutive painting appears almost monochrome, but it’s not. The effect is the result of a process whereby many layers and veils of colour are carefully dragged over each other. Once I had the fragile colour field laid in, I made marks into the paint, which cannot be erased other than by being painted out. Each expressive line is a once-only combination of deliberate gesture and chance.

These processes combine to create the bush view before you. The paint itself, with its delicious buttery texture, provides the spatial depth. Then, drawing into the paint develops anecdotal and tactile forms on the surface. Together they create a work that is a memory of place.

- Steve Burley, 2015