I combine painting with sculpture, and the made with the ready-made. Investigating colour, form and architectural and special arrangements in relationship to painting as a subject and discipline in and of itself. My new work is the result of a sustained interrogation of painting and process in relation to the found object.
A series of new ‘Found Paintings’ are examples of this new investigation. Carefully selected objects such as used and discarded scrap metal, table tops, dusty panels and lighting units are presented as paintings, challenging the viewer to look beyond speculation about former use and action, towards acceptance of each object and surface as aesthetically final and complete, a reclamation and assertion of Painting through the artistic legacy of the found object.
My work draws on influences from disparate sources, referencing the luxury of 50’s and 60’s interior design of West Coast America, the murder scenes of Helmut Newton, Colour Film Noir and the post-industrial landscape of North East England. Salvaged from local scrap yards these works lead a double life: both as autonomous objects and as Mise-en-scene. As such they imply an event or act that occurs outside the work ambiguous and substantiation except for the intimated luxury or seediness of material and colour the works become both sinister and erotic. – Paul Merrick, 2012
See more artworks by Paul Merrick here.