an Exhibition of Paintings by Laura Monaghan, Projeto Gallery Silsden

April 17th - May 17th 2010
Monday - Friday 9am - 4pm

Projeto Gallery
84 Kirkgate, Silsden, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 0PA

Evening Opening, all welcome
Friday 23rd April 6pm - 8pm


My paintings explore the potential of the human imagination to discover the fantastical within the natural landscape. My interest lies in the contradictory associations of these environments: whilst being host to beautiful, organic forms and structures, sinister undertones pervade, along with a propensity to generate fear.
The paintings continually return to the material process and their development is lead by the dynamics of the paint. Multilayered surfaces are created through a process of addition and subtraction, preserving areas which are suspended between abstract matter and familiar structures. Suggestive of plant formations and natural growth, these areas of exposure sustain an ambiguity, which leaves them open to interpretation.
Allowing controlled chance to play a part in the making, gives the paint freedom to takes its own course and relates back to the landscapes natural qualities from which it was inspired. Tension is created between serendipitous procedures and the control I impose upon these. The interaction of various painted layers obscures or challenges the viewers reading of foreground and background whilst creating seemingly contradictory spatial and physical depths within the paintings.
Viscous, dark surfaces create physicality and tactility, acting as a protective shell to fragile forms or creating a window or glimpse into a world beyond. Isolating forms within a dark void forces them under scrutiny and thereby creates a mystical quality. Whilst highlighting their beauty, they become alienated from their surroundings, creating an atmosphere of eeriness or discomfort.