42 Shades of Ephemera

Keith Thompson (March 2009)

Being synesthesic, colours, numbers, shapes and sensations relate to each other for me in a way that most people find unusual. For instance, the colour red directly relates to the number 3 and connects to the ground in a square. Yellow is a cold, brittle triangle that resonates with the number 2. The colour green is 5, both comforting and claustrophobic. Blue, purple, grey, orange and white all have connotations that are equally illogical.

Only they make perfect sense to me!

It’s this notion of connectivity between the seemingly unconnected that influences the choices I’ve made as a painter: placing colours and shapes together is either inherently right or just plain wrong! Textures only work within certain shades, a certain number of objects only work if they are the correct colour and sit at the correct angle…

Capturing the hypnotic motion of fish as they slowly circle, or of feathers as they fall, only cohere when painted with these things in mind.

This exhibition incorporates the unfinished, unnamed or unconnected pieces of work that have flown through my mind during the last few years; these are my ephemeral synesthesic snapshots of a moment’s thought that were pinned to the canvas in a mixture of texture, form and colour for me to revisit and explore.

I hope they make sense to you too.