Gayle Payne
Artist & Art Educator
This Archetype series emerges in the form of abstract expressionism with elements of the figure. It is formed by accessing the unconscious through mark-making. It is felt that what arises is a reflection of personal and collective Archetypes, stories , experiences and dream states.
The work emerges from a drawing practice which is carried over to the painting in mindset and process. Presently the work evolves one step beyond the painting into 3D work involving textiles. The work begins to inform itself and create physical narratives.
An understanding of the work has been found through research into Carl Jung’s Archetypes.
This series focusses on the personal symbolism of the artist through collective life themes seen as Archetypes. The 3D work that evolves is partly formed by assembled pieces which suggest a current Archetype forming, a new story which does not come from ancient myth but today’s society.Gayle is an artist and art educator and has a Degree in Performance Art from Dartington College of Arts. Her art practice can be seen through experimental mark-making, oil painting on stretched canvas and hanging canvases. 3D pieces begin to form from the painting work.Work is available for sale on request, please contact the artist. The work would suit shared shows, group exhibitions of similar themes and solo shows. Please get in touch if you would like to see the work and the broader practice or you think the work would be well placed in your institution or collection. [email protected]
Light of the day
Archetype Series, discovering narratives through subconscious painting.
Light of the Day.
Oil on canvas 37x30 inches 2024
FOOLS GOLD
Archetype Series, discovering narratives through subconscious painting.
Fools Gold, Oil on canvas 37x37 inches 2024
Mother
Archetype Series, discovering narratives through subconscious painting.
Mother, Oil on canvas 37x37 inches 2024
Black Rainbow
Archetype Series, discovering narratives through subconscious painting.
Black Rainbow, Oil on canvas 37x37 inches 2023
Dark Night
Archetype Series, discovering narratives through subconscious painting.
Dark Night, Oil on canvas 37x37 inches 2022
Light of the Day
In the light of the day, challenges m me as much as it amazes me, but only when viewing it after a painting session. During painting sessions I just paint. I have found this phrase Oceanic State and Oceanic Feeling by Freud and I think it describes my painting state well. I cannot concern myself with feelings or judgement whilst painting because that gets in the way. It is a mindset, a vibe, a feeling that leads me through the painting process. I feel I access a place that is unfathomable to me.This is a painting where I did not paint things in it. I see resemblances to bodies and faces and eyes that I had no intention of painting.
I move through the painting with mark making, brush to surface, movement, feeling, and exploration. The liquid state of the oil paint helps in this ocean to form and swim through,
Fools gold
Fools Gold title came after the work because I thought about the chaos experienced when you worship the wrong thing. When society structures turn dark and shadowy and it’s not working, then a kind of clinging and pushing envelopes. A sinking.
In my experience this was the school system, the white shirt is devoured, its arms turning into something else. The child is nowhere to be found or seen.
The working thought around this painting was Monster. I thought alot about how we demonise and other extreme behaviours, how the scapegoat scenario happens. How we love to hold to example of bad.
Along with this piece a 3D sculpture appeared. It is the manifestation of this painting, called School Beast.
I noticed when painting that if I turned it upside-down that the painting changed. Actually I think it started this way and was then turned upside down, I like the confusion of this. The beast in the painting sprouted wings, like a winged dog. I like the complexity of this image. My experience and thoughts and processing of life themes swirl around and it is complex, it is unspeakable.
Mother
We all have experience of the mother architype, it is part of our experience and our lineage. I as a mother of two.
There were many elements that appeared during the painting process of this. A creature on the left like a large otter with its hand across the face of the upside down figure, silencing the figure. A mother figure in chaos and angular not soft and calm. The figure is apart of the darkness but also the earth. The air thick with yellow that is not warming but oppressive overbearing and seeping into everything.
I felt like it was a battle and I remember looking at the Delacroix painting Lady of Liberty but the figure inverted.
Black Rainbow
A figure in turmoil but round and protected. The black rainbow is perhaps a sign of other more positive elements but darkened by self. I really dislike the word hope because it is a shroud of dismissal that bears no relevance to what is happening. Hope has no place here but this figure is aware of itself, it has an outer element going on, the black rainbow. It is about changing. Painful but necessary, like the rights of life. Stages of experience. Acceptance of what is. A non-pretending, no pretence. A take it or leave it, here it is.
Dark Knight
Dark Night is walking into the darkness. The head already consumed by it. A male figure, perhaps the animus of the female unconscious. This is the Jungian meaning of animus but it also means anger, betrayal and hate and I think these feeling lead you into a dark hole. The female unconscious of a male is called anima.
There is no way out, perhaps the beginning of a journey. Walking through the dark is a reoccurring presence for some. The dark is red and green and the figure emerges from red and green brushstrokes that claw at the figure. There is a what I like to call a switch at the bottom of the painting. Two definite colours against one another.
The bottom of the painting n the left is lighter. I feel that you never really rise above themes or stuff in life but sometimes fall out of it, like a trap door that puts you somewhere better. A necessary process.