
Works on Paper
3 works

Neigh Bores Hoarse, 2022
Oil stick matte vinyl acrylic spray paint charcoal and pencil on canvas
204 x 142 cm
Nathan Paddison's "Neigh Bores Hoarse" exemplifies the artist's visceral approach to mark-making, where figuration emerges from and dissolves back into gestural chaos. The substantial canvas becomes an arena for competing impulses—oil stick drags against matte vinyl surfaces, charcoal smudges interrupt fields of spray paint, and pencil lines trace nervous pathways through layers of acrylic. The title itself, a playful phonetic scramble, suggests the breakdown of communication, voices strained to the point of failure, perhaps neighbors reduced to exhausted horses or conversations worn hoarse through repetition. The work carries an emotional register that oscillates between aggression and tenderness. Paddison builds density through accumulation, allowing certain passages to breathe while others become almost impenetrably worked. Figures or fragments of figures may surface—a suggested limb, the curve of a torso, an eye-like form watching from the pictorial murk—before being subsumed again by the artist's restless hand. There is something both urgent and meditative in this process, as if the painting documents a sustained negotiation between revelation and concealment. Within Paddison's broader practice, this piece demonstrates his commitment to material experimentation and his refusal to settle into comfortable resolution. The mixed-media approach creates a tactile archaeology where each layer speaks to a different moment of decision. The scale demands physical engagement from the viewer, pulling them into its atmospheric depth. This commanding work would anchor any collection seeking contemporary painting that honors expressionist traditions while pushing toward new visual territories.
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