the Garden
Twin exhibition with Sue Simpson // Private Club // Melbourne
10 November, 2021 – late January 2022
Four years ago I decided have a change from just painting portraits and landscapes so I began photographing flowers. Although more recent flower paintings have been signed as WATTS my initial experimental flower paintings were signed using the nickname VIX. The artist statement which accompanied the early experimental works played on the Financial Volatility Index by the same name…
Flowers by Vix
Real time images of flowers capture their volatility over time: buds open in expectation; full, radiant blooms bring splendour and hope; and hinting at a gradual fall into inevitable decay.
Natures progression is recorded over several days using photography. Prime images are ren- dered on canvas recording the shape, colour and form of the flowers. The elegance, and glamour is unchallenged in its perfection and reflects the buoyant and optimistic sentiments pursued in life. Mirroring the image is simultaneously an insight into the frailty of beauty and the inescapable cycle of life. Botanical volatility in glorious colour.
Two of the paintings are named by the wavelength of the dominant colour in the painting: 565-590nm which represent yellow sunflowers and 620-750nm which is a painting of two red roses. The impression of a colour and the message it conveys to the viewer helps create the psychological mood of both art- works and internal spaces. An American from Chicago, Faber Birren, was one of the first people to re- search and write about the human perception of and response to colour. Interestingly colour connota- tions and colour mood associations have been found to be consistent across different cultures.
