Douglas Zest 

One of the most important sensations in the visual arts is the response of the viewer to the touch of the artist - the inherent sense of personality and emotion that is left in the trace of a brush through paint or a pool of saturated colour. To construct a sophisticated visual language of intelligence and knowingness is a slow, deliberating journey, where honesty and purity are intuitively conveyed through the physical process of painting. Success is the complete fusion of the artist’s life and the painting experience                                     

My paintings are a process of exploration. There are no messages or hidden agendas, other than to reveal the discoveries made during my investigations. Perhaps I do take cues from familiar surroundings and perhaps the steamy summers, rich patinas of aged surfaces in the country and the mystery of colour do find their way into my work. But not as images, not obviously and certainly not intentionally.

There is, of course, the seed of an idea or a bit of a plan when I begin, but I am quickly directed by the work, answering the needs, sorting the puzzles and discovering solutions. I work with layers of thick and thin color, washed or scumbled over a textured surface and airbrush. Traces are left by assorted mark makers, lines are straight, curved or gestural, surfaces are wiped, dripped and spattered; all adding to an eventual sense of accumulation and the essence of time.