Gimme Shelter 4, 2003, Todd Hunter
Oil on board, 35cm x 40cm
Provenance: Grant Pirrie Gallery, Sydney. Private Collection, Sydney. Mossgreen, Melbourne.
Australian artist Todd Hunter creates expressive, dynamic canvasses which seek to represent the essence rather than the physical matter of things. He considers himself neither a figurative nor abstract painter, instead extracting colour, form and sentiment from the world around him: The figure and the landscape are both elements present in my work, evidenced or acknowledged through colour and form, but most importantly through a dynamic or force.’ Since graduating from the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney, the artist has had numerous solo shows throughout Australia and has also been exhibited in a large number of group shows nationally (1).
Artist Statement
I draw a lot with the paint, either with a brush, or direct from the tube. Drawing is an important element in my overall process. Often the forms I begin with … are concerned with the landscape around me. The most important element I have taken from drawing is that of erasure. It is to a large extent the crux of my process. Once I reach a certain point in the painting, it becomes more about taking things out - erasing - than putting things in. Remembering though, and I am learning this, to take things out is to actually put things in. It’s an instinctual exercise of exposing and revealing and the accompanying high of discovery of finding the hidden. It’s about finishing and leaving the image unsettled, caught in its moment like it has won its freedom, and pregnant with possibility for the next picture. Often, I feel, to over-finish or explain a painting is to rob it of its power and potential.