Matt Hardman’s paintings explore the complex relationships which develop between different personalities over time; and our preoccupation with our own, personal experiences of reality and the feeling of alienation this sometimes causes. The subjects recall raw emotional states which we learn to mask in life. Hardman draws from his own direct experiences but reshuffles and re-present them in an attempt to recapture the atmosphere of a remembered event or situation and the intensity of the feeling around it. The hope is that the work conveys some of the anxieties, humour and frustrations that are part of the human condition.
The Process
Matt Hardman works with oil paint - and with spray paint - on ply board, which is a tough support, allowing him to constantly revise the surface of the painting as it develops. His process is involved with many alternative versions, somevisible, some buried beneath the finished painting. He starts from a loose sketch, or from something seen or found-but, generally, straight from imagination, memories and experiences scraping back areas of the painting’s surface revealing hidden mark-making and patches of colour - the ghosts of lost paintings - through which he creates a sense of movement and passing time. Decisions are made, what will be saved as the main focus-and what will be painted-out to create foreground, background Space and atmosphere.
Matt hardman ( born 1972 ) lives and works in Rye East Sussex UK studied 2D & 3D communication at University of Brighton 1992 - 1994 & Illustration at the University of Brighton 2008 - 2010 achieving awards in both subjects he has exhibited extensively in the UK and his work is held in private and public collections.
