These paintings draw on the formal concerns of still-life painting to explore the spirit of space and place, the hidden life of objects, and the importance of play within the act of making and engaging with art.
I assemble, and then paint from, combinations of found or self-made objects gathered into small, intimate and sometimes jerry-built tableaux which are lit by a hidden artificial light.
Each object or ‘prop’ is selected primarily for it’s colour, shape, form or reaction to light – the language of painting. Some are chosen for their ability to imitate or help imitate something from the real world. Many are homeless, detached from their previous lives – now coerced into new relationships and uses.
Each painting creates a fictional, intimate space that hovers between the still-life and landscape genres, exploring the relationships between the external world of the park, playground, theatre or public space, and the internal, staged and private world and workings of the painting studio.
Neill Fuller is a painter who lives and works in Somerset. He was born in Essex and studied Fine Art in Bath 1991-93.
Recent exhibitions include, 'You'll See Glimpses', Pound Arts, Corsham, 'Small World', PS Mirabel, Manchester, 'Painting As Thinking', Salisbury Arts Centre, 'Painting Worlds', The Maltings, Farnham, 'Line/Body/Light', Barbican Arts Trust, London, The Open West 2014, The Zeitgeist Arts Open, London; ‘The Hot-One-Hundred’, Schwartz Gallery, London; ‘Now Wakes The Sea’, Kinsale, Co. Cork, and solo shows at The Tobacco Factory and The Parlour Showrooms, Bristol. He was awarded The 2013 Blackswan Arts Prize.