Artist Statement - Claire Davies June 2005

The formalist attitude is one I take with my own work. It is a formalist observation that “a painting […] must live by the strength of the paint alone, must rely on the means which are proper to it, without the aid of melodrama or anecdote”* My pieces are not subject driven, but arrangements of visual elements secured by aesthetic judgement, investigations of space, light and detail. My objective is for the viewer to be moved by my work, not through its content but through its form. The work is autonomous, self-sufficient in its beauty, allowing room for the viewer, but not for any deep political or conceptual analysis. As my spectator consumes the form they are invited to bring as little or as much of themselves to the work as they would like, they may bring their own analogies to the pieces I make, and find room for contemplation; as I would have had when creating them. Matisse considered his work in a similar vain when he likened it to “a good armchair.”**