Form and process, complete abstraction, the colour grey, spruce pine stretchers, 4.5cm deep – Alan Charlton set his own parameters over 40 years ago and has followed these personal rules ever since. He looked for utilitarian, industrial colours that had been mass produced for manufacturing; reds, greens and other colours were tried before he settled on grey. A colour with few associations, producing little emotional response beyond the direct experience between painting and viewer. A colour linked to the industrial landscape of his childhood in Sheffield.

Each layer of paint is sanded producing a grey, velvet texture, a light absorbing uniform surface. This use of colour asks the viewer to concentrate predominantly on the form, from crosses, rectangles, squares and their borders to voids within shapes. The space where two canvases meet, four corners cut out of a canvas square, an outline physically painted on the wall. We look at these grey structured shapes and become aware of how they affect the space beyond their borders. Charlton feels it is important that the work maintains an honesty to the space it exists in. His paintings change our relationship to the surrounding architecture, highlighting the areas between the paintings. It forces us to read the spaces within and around the paintings.

For this exhibition Charlton will be showing an installation of five large Triangle Paintings from 2013 in the main space on the fourth floor. In our third floor gallery will be a selection of works, which show the development of his work of the last few years towards to the triangular form.

-Annely Juda Fine Art

Image: © Alan Charlton
Triangle Painting (2013)
Acrylic on canvas
234 x 234 cm