Catherine Asquith Gallery at Depot Gallery Danks St Waterloo

Maintaining and respecting the qualities within the surface of the painting support has been an integral part of Stokes painting practice. Stokes work is characteristic for maintaining broad areas of primed or unprimed canvas allowing the surface to hold the integrity of the gesture and mark whether it be a stain, wash ,painted or drawn mark. Her subject matter deals with interface, the space between seen and unseen, that ambiguous zone between recognition and abstraction, yet it is informed through immersive experience of the landscape. It is this daily experience of immersion in place that surface becomes notonly a support but a metaphor for her experience. Stokes’ coastal landscape offers a flat plane on which nature and water acts; the washing, soaking, staining upon the shore; the act of walking and movingupon the surface of landscape and moving through the space offers multiple viewpoints of experience.These are re-enacted through the receptive qualities of the canvas surface.

The works engage the viewer through nuances and subtle shifts between treatment of surface setting up a dialogue between the painted and unpainted areas. The qualities of the surface, the shifts between porosity and resistance allow for aninteraction between drawn or painted mark and areas of porous colour. The works are made for an immersive experience.

Between Mark and Place

triptych  152cm x 456cm  configuration variable, acrylic and oilstick on canvas