“I’m not a pictorial artist, I’ve no interest in this. I’m interested in the feel of things.”
He describes himself as a Romantic, saying he’s got no time for anything else. I like him already.
McKeever enjoys the physicality of paint, pouring, viscosity, the material substance of the paint itself. He writes that he would like his paintings to grow at the same speed as mountains are formed, suggesting a massive gestation and a great natural power. The earth folds and mountains are pushed up as continental plates press together in a monumental certainty and potential for chaos.
McKeever works on his paintings in series, slowly building layer upon layer, and passing on to the next, working his way through the whole group, before starting again at the beginning, thus allowing time for the works to dry before adding more layers. He works for around a year on a series, so nothing is rushed.
With reference to the gesture in painting McKeever makes very clear statements about his approach, and contemporary practice, stating one cannot paint in a gestural way without seeming naive, the gesture belongs to de Kooning, and the past. For the contemporary painter it seems we have to deny our hand in some way, create with a finesse which disguises the production, and not flourish our painterly handwriting skills.
McKeever suggests that the act of painting is not a contrivance saying “I don’t know the edge between my skin and the painting when I’m working”. Painting becomes instinctual. It grows out of the meeting of physical and intellectual. Painting grows out of the friction between the material and the spiritual. Referring to the intensity of William Blake, “I find Blake fascinating; he was close to the edge... Blake’s figures have a kind of heat, they’re cosmic in range. They emanate light...”. For McKeever this is important, when he paints he’s “so in my feelings”. Yet as he works he asks profound questions of his paintings; -
“What is the kernel of oneself? What is that edge? What is me?”
“The meeting point of the world out there and in here, what is the edge that separates me from the world out there?”
“What if truth be found in painting”?
His work is very pared down, a discrete exploration. Often depicting the polarity and drama of light and darkness, he speaks of ‘presences’ or ‘countenance’ in his work. The reality and strength of the work brings a ‘presence’ into the world which has never been seen before, a ‘countenance’ which has never existed. Some of his paintings float towards the viewer, not unlike Eastern Icons whose countenances float in non-perspectival spiritual atmospheres.
Ian McKeever explores the boundaries of his being whilst creating art. He paints to understand himself in life. He describes losing his sense of self in crowds, and seems to rediscover himself in remote, wilderness places. Returning home he paints abstract paintings to confirm himself, to confirm his individuality. As a modern Romantic he wants to elevate himself and his audience, to lift us to contemplation of a higher reality through the medium of paint and canvas.
Quotes from,
Ian McKeever in conversation, King’s Place 06.09.2009
In Praise of Painting, I. McKeever, University of Brighton 2005
