The studio

Kevin Ryan

"The studio offers me an enclosed location well away from the first point of reference, which is normally a sketch I have made of some piece of landscape that interests me. It is the place where ideas are formulated, worked on and developed. Hopefully these ideas will, after many struggles and discards, eventually develop into paintings. The work will undergo many changes from the original sketch because I am trying to say something different in my painting, not just produce a reproduction. To this end I am consciously striving to build up the textures and forms of the paintings to develop pieces of work that have interesting depth and resonance. The worked surfaces of these paintings evolve through a mixture of experimentation and exploitation of the various materials I use and, as the processes develop, I am hopefully working towards infusing the paintings with a striking and responsive presence."

It's a risky business but you've got to take risks. What's the point of painting if you don't?

- Barbara Rae R.A

"I invariably paint standing up, working on one painting at a time, carefully building up the surfaces through glazing over successive coats of acrylic paint. As the work develops I add drawing with watercolour pencils, Aquatone sticks and, less frequently, pastels and carbon pencils. These days I spend almost as much time scraping paint off as I do applying it. This is important as it allows underlying paint or marks to show through and gives the works increasing depth. It also adds a patina to the final surface of the paintings which I enjoy developing even further with more scraping off and mark making."