When an artist works with more conventional still life subjects, they focus primarily on the formal properties of the painting, such as color relationships, form, proportions, and other qualities typically associated with non-objective works. Still life offers the artist considerable freedom in these aspects of visual art, yet it retains the limitations of representation. It is a challenge that the artist enjoys exploring. Paintings.
Christopher Terry's paintings explore the tension between the everyday and the mystical. His subjects are primarily inspired by objects and artifacts that lack a strong ego and avoid connections to popular culture. He frames and illuminates this subject in a way that interprets still life as a secular altar where an ambiguous ritual takes place. The paintings resulting from this exploration are often both serene and meditative, yet also charged with anticipation. This tension is sustained by a rhythm that evokes the rhythm of memory and dreams. Paradoxically, for an artist like Terry, often considered a "realist," this rhythm arises more from invention and memory than from direct observation.
From Still Life paintings Series. Oil on canvas Unique artwork Signed and dated in the reverse