Martin Decent Solo Exhibition: October 2009

Martin Decent has established a reputation as a prolific and versatile artist. While his subject matter varies from landscape to seascape and contemporary abstracts, his primary pre-occupation with colour remains constant. His interest in the effect of colour is distinctive and his handling of highly textured and reflective surfaces is a characteristic of his work. His pallet is rich but is not limited to paint. He uses what can be regarded as traditional impasto techniques but a range of other materials find their way into his work, often cleverly incorporated as visual clues and metaphors.

The mark making involved in Martin Decent’s work is increasingly complex, particularly in his more abstract work, where the boundaries of representation and surfacen manipulation blur. His work manifests the fine painterly skills of a mature artist, combined with the sensuous manipulation of what can be, quite literally, a rich and sumptuous surface, where gold and silver leaf are often used - elements that signify immutability and stability amongst a continuous sea of change.

The landscapes which Martin Decent has produced have been focused on the Derbyshire Peak District. Change through erosion caused by the ebb and flow of water is a recurring theme and his interest in colour and the effects of light provide a constantly changing source of inspiration. The area also provides the luxurious textures of rock, bracken and the receding distances which provide the intrigue in his paintings – the immediate presence of the paintings surface and the underlying illusion of space, distance and light.

“I am concerned with colour, composition and texture within my paintings. This often reflects my interest with the beauty of randomness to be found within nature. The paintings are often intended to be a “snapshot” of something far wider in dimension and far more likely to have changed over time. The confines of the edge of the canvas represents, for me, a “box” which can contain these transitory moments - the Momento Mori of life: a theme in painting that has underlined Western Art for centuries.”