Deeson Gallery: Jason Pickard

I once read that an artist had said that ‘paintings present themselves to us in real life’. I took this as inspiration for making pictures: the idea that there are rich opportunities for exciting compositions with dynamic colour and form just in front of our eyes. I am interested in these personal, and sometimes hidden, spaces that are often not given our gaze but communicate aspects of who we are. 

My pictures are made from direct observation. Some are painted in a short time, without any interference with the arrangement of objects and elements of composition. I wanted the paintings to look fresh and true to the colours and tones as I saw them at the time. I wanted to avoid fussiness and an imposed style. 

The directness of Chardin’s quiet still life paintings and the simplicity of Morandi’s bottle paintings have been an inspiration for making pictures. I am now working on portrait painting and see this, like still life, as an opportunity to communicate the personality of the sitter through personal space and objects.