R.J.T. HAYNES: MUGSHOTS
August 3-25, 2019
Reception: Saturday, August 3, 5-7pm
Open: Friday - Sunday, 12-5pm
and by appointment

The Arts Center at Duck Creek is pleased to announce RJT Haynes: Mugshots, an exhibition of paintings opening on August 3, and on view through Sunday, August 25, 2019. A reception will be held for the artist on Saturday, August 3, from 5-7pm. The exhibition hours will be Friday - Sunday, 12-5pm.

“I read German & Philosophy at Oxford (in the days when you could still get away with that sort of thing) before moving to a remote cottage in North Cornwall; living without electricity for 17 years made me more attuned to seasons, light, atmosphere. I worked in nature conservation for a number of years until taking up painting & writing full-time. I now divide my time between Cornwall, New York, & East Hampton. I’ve exhibited in the US since 2011, including at the Parrish Museum; my watercolour 'Interface’ won Best in Show at the EEAC National Show in 2017. I love the alchemy of line & colour - the hunt for the spark that ignites an image. A picture will never turn out exactly as originally conceived: the journey itself determines the destination. I will change my technique or colours if it all starts to feel too familiar & comfortable - the materials & subject have a say in what becomes of them: painting is always a negotiation or collaboration.

The title Mugshots is a bit mischievous, but there's a thread of portraiture in all these works: people, animals, or objects and - implicitly - their owners. Even inanimate things acquire layers of texture & significance by association. I often depict farm animals: my Cornish studio has more sheep & cows than human neighbours, and I’m intrigued by the ambivalent status of livestock among us. I’m a poor taxonomist because I see similarities & connections rather than differences & distinctions: an apple evokes the tree, the blossom, the pollinating insect, the harvest, recipe books, religious & erotic symbolism, &c. Fleeting impressions are less interesting than lasting effects, the half-life & mutation of memory, the mycelial web of associations – but a painting must ultimately have a life of its own, to find its way without exegesis.”

-- RJT Haynes