PAN - ARCH grey 1
PAN - ARCH GREY 2
PAN - ARCH grey 3
ZING 1
ZING 3
ZING 14
ZING 21
ZING 24
ZING installation
'New Paintings, Andre Lipscombe + Paul Moncrieff'
Z I N G
‘Child’s play’
Since 2010, my practice has evolved into the concrete, the non-objective object, non-figurative formalism. Using utilitarian workable plywood, timber supports, and pre mixed colours of acrylic paint I have assembled many varieties of hard-edged compositions. All work is constructed according to a self-imposed system of size and shape and assembled to offer a suggestion of the infinite possibilities within this system. The colours are used to compliment the built geometric shapes. Hand-made, brush-painted simple geometry is reminiscent of my preoccupation with visual games and indeed the work may be considered child-like in its simplicity.
As artist Jillian Green has said of my work:
It is within the last seven years that Paul Moncrieff has completely dropped any figurative or narrative elements from his work. Moncrieff’s enjoyment of building and attraction to modernist architecture is apparent in these assembled works. I believe Moncrieff has happened upon a unique practice, very satisfying to the spatial mind, that provides a manner in which he boldly presents his primary artistic strength. This strength that dominates and vibrates through all of this work, I believe, is “composition”. Surface, shape, size and colour all work within systems within systems to present a variety of compositions. These compositions hold the viewer’s eye effortlessly in a space between uninteresting repetition and meaningless busyness offering instead a playful and engaging movement through proportions of colour and shape. Some works tease the memory seemingly suggestive of a recognizable form, though not enough to be sure - the eye is free to move on. A system of restricted colour choice, reminiscent of Da Stijl, interrelates across all works. The arrangement and spaces between each work, almost important as the work itself, are carefully considered belieing the fact that far more than mere “child’s play” is going on here.
‘you should never underestimate the power of simple shapes…geometry.’
Kevin McCloud 5th June 2016. Grand Designs, Irish House programme.
PAUL MONCRIEFF
August 2016