HENRY WARD

My paintings are abstract but grounded in observation of things in the real world. I am interested in objects and spaces and excited by paints ability to create the illusion of space whilst simultaneously acknowledging that it is material on a flat surface. Fundamentally I am a formalist and am drawn to, and inspired by, other paintings that tackle these concerns.

“I am interested in exploring the language of paint by investigating the threshold between abstraction and representation.”

I work primarily as a painter, but also make drawings and small sculptures. I maintain three specific sites of practice; my kitchen table, where I make small objects, my shed, where I paint on paper, and my studio. These three spaces create an ongoing dialogue between different ways of working and different paces. The paintings in the shed are rapidly made, with intuitive revisions and reworkings. The more realised works, made over longer periods of time in the studio, are informed by both these and the small objects.

I am interested in making paintings that refer to objects and spaces in the real world without being nameable, I want things to feel familiar and alien at the same time. I am fascinated by paint and the way in which it can do multiple things simultaneously, being both material on a flat surface and creating the illusion of space.