Untitled II (Orange)

Kes Richardson

“Naked ladies weren’t a starting point as such,” explains Kes Richardson of his penchant for representing the sexualised female form, “I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t overwhelmed with the wealth of pornography to be found on the Internet. I find it truly staggering how much there is but also realized how ugly and aesthetically backward the vast majority of it is. Surely someone can make stylish porno? I had previously worked from found images from magazines so using naked figures from pornography seemed a natural progression. I liked the idea of making portraits with some extreme sense of emotion and the charge of sexuality.” Kes is nearly 30 years old and grew up in Launceston, Cornwall, “a small, beautiful, boy-racer-ridden town marinated in cider and magic mushroom tea.” Since graduating from Bath Spa University College in 1998 he’s moved to London and become a successful artist represented by the Clapham Art Gallery (http://www.claphamartgallery.com) who have put on his exhibitions ‘Strip’, ‘Come’ and ‘Nude’. He has also had exhibitions across Europe and will be showing at AAF New York, June 16-18th. Kes is also one third of the bodyboarding “media collective” Redefynd (www.redefynd.co.uk) whose latest project is the DVD ‘ABC: A Blank Canvas’ documenting “three of the world’s most technical, talented and fearless bodyboarders chasing swells and searching for previously unridden heavy wave locations” around the Atlantic (“One day I’m sure some aspect of surfing will work it’s way into my painting”).

Which only leaves it to Beatmag to ask if any of his ‘porno’ paintings have ever caused offence.
“In my second solo show I made a painting of a girl giving a blowjob,” Kes laughs, “I remember that the working drawing for the painting looked really abstract but when the painting was full size on the gallery wall there seemed to be no question as to what was depicted. It was pretty blatant. A collector of mine came to a preview of the show and after a polite greeting said that he couldn’t bear to look in the direction of the work. He said that it was crude and lacked the subtle, sensuality of my other work and ruined the whole show. He still bought three paintings though.”

‘Zoe-03′

“‘This is called ‘Zoe-03’ and was painted for a solo show in 2003. I like the way it moves between being a pure figure study to an erotic pose to quite a sinister image due to the dark hair shape that obscures the face. In this respect it kind of reminds me of Francis Bacon’s ‘Figure in a Landscape’ of 1945. Instead of just being a passive nude figure it becomes charged with a more animal quality.”

‘Alex-26′

“Made in 2005, ‘Alex-26’was the result of a much more free drawing and planning process. My paintings are executed in a tight, meticulous, almost factory-like way and so I liked the idea of the image showing more signs of energy and freedom even though it’s creation is quite mundane. I also wanted to introduce the idea of the artist’s hand into the very cold flat-surfaced paintings. Areas were masked off and thick paint applied in gestural brushstrokes. Lines were introduced as though made in one sweeping motion with an opaque marker adding an aspect of sensitivity as well as immediacy.”

‘Petra-11′

“Recently I have introduced more coherent areas to contrast with the much more loosely abstracted forms and lines. In ‘Petra-11’ the face is quite clearly modelled and this acts as a cognitive way into reading the painting. If the face were taken away completely the overall painting would make less sense. This allows me a lot more freedom with how I choose to describe the rest of the body so I can play with stronger compositional and colour relationships. Each area of the painting is also physically built up in a different way, from the matt, super flat ground to areas of glossy impasto, creating a greater sensation of visual space between the planes of colour.”

‘Bunny’

“Alongside the pornographic work I have been exploring other ideas and whilst different in content they share the interest in manipulating a found image to create something that retains much of its formal characteristics but also gains new sensibilities. Working with thicker areas of paint I’ve become more aware of the plastic, skin-like quality of acrylic. I’m not sure if the drawing wasn’t going particularly well but I decided to obscure all of the features of a portrait I was working on apart from the mouth. The resulting image, ‘Bunny’, has a beguiling malignance. I think the sinister mouth combined with the playful cartoon/gimp-esque forms rendered in delicious, shiny paint create an unnerving quality.”

‘Bear’

“I have a love for highly finished objects and liked the idea of making an image of a sterile toy but with more unsettling human qualities. ‘Bear’ juxtaposes simple, clean form with a troubled, melancholy expression.”

‘The Mill’

“In ‘The Mill’ I have appropriated Constable’s painting of Flatford Mill in Suffolk. Through constant reproduction the original image has become chocolate boxy and twee but I really like the strength of its composition. Some of my earliest memories of Suffolk are of my Granddad scaring me with tales of witches in the woods and I wanted to create that feeling in my interpretation by setting the scene at dusk. My painting is much smaller and more intimate than the original and this combined with the glossy, lush surface invites the viewer to come very close to the surface. The dark blue/green is made with heavy impasto paintwork with deep brushstrokes hinting at areas in the shadows. I like the combination of the simple stage set theatricality with the subtle sense of threat and menace.”

Check http://www.kesrichardson.com for more.

Filed under: Art, Gallery by Flexmaster Nylon
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