Ed Saye
“I make landscapes out of what I feel.” Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
I see the act of painting as a search for authenticity and that for an artist to put themselves into a work of art is an act of courage.
I am currently making a series of paintings of hippie golfers in psychedelic landscapes, using a process that combines oil painting with the latest digital image-making technology and AI. The result is a hybrid digital-physical image that acknowledges the existence of new technologies and celebrates the versatile materiality, slowness and timelessness of paint.
Aesthetically they look like a cross between a northern renaissance landscape and a retro videogame, with hippie-like characters swinging wonky golf-clubs that might equally by scythes, clubs or weapons.
The cartoonish, swashbuckling subjects represent ideas of heroic but flawed masculinity, while the artificial landscapes and dramatic skies seem apocalyptic or suggestive of environmental collapse.
The colour palette is intense, fully saturated, and often with elements in silhouette and backlit figures, which enhances the artificiality of the scene.
A key influence for this body of work are years of watching friends and family members gaming (I have no interest in playing myself) and I am fascinated by these imaginary worlds and their transcendent light, where people can role play and enjoy an escapist experience.
These paintings are a space for me to create my own ‘other’ worlds and a way to process and understand the world around me while experiencing the creative joy of painting.
