Kelvin Britton: "Roses 8", oil on canvas, 48 x 60". Kelvin Britton was born at the Covered Wagon Trailer Park in Fort Garry, Manitoba. He was educated at the University of Victoria and Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, where he studied painting under Gerald Ferguson. He collects, repairs and rides vintage motorcycles. He paints roses.
"I choose to paint roses because of the universal recognition of beauty inherent in them as subject/object. The roses are an entry point into what is an essentially abstract painting. The paint handling is a visceral experience and can take a very long time to evolve, sometimes years. I paint one or two roses on a painting, and then move on to the next one, rotating the paintings themselves.
The act of painting takes the form of a conversation, a unique experience, a journey. A new dialogue is engaged in with each new approach to the work, new layers of discovery are revealed, realms of consciousness, otherwise inaccessible become apparent.
The different stages/aspects/ layers of the painting represent a record of a dreamlike encounter. Looking at the evolution of the paintings feels like an archaeological expedition through time and space, through interior and exterior realms, through form and feeling.
I have a need to engage in the process where the canvases evolve through various stages, some overtly messy, even ugly. I add the many layers until the beauty is revealed. It is not a complex process to recognize a rose, or to assume its beauty. The complexity lies in the process of discovery, journeying beyond the obvious to reveal what may lie hidden, the surprises that are revealed in the interaction between painter and subject /object. "
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