Beyond the Zen Garden

This exhibition ‘Beyond the Zen Garden’ focuses on the work of Allan Renshaw between the years of 2003-09. His work during this period has mainly been produced in series. His interest in painting in series has emerged more fully over this period and has assumed a strong significance.

The name of the exhibition alludes to some work Allan did with the landscape gardener Robert Ketchell who specialises in the creation of Japanese Gardens. The culmination of this collaboration was the placing of two large river stones, one in the interior of a renovated Grange and one on the external terrace. Allan's thinking on this experience eventually emerged as an influence in his ‘Parallel Series’.

In 2005 Allan was working on the idea of communicating an elemental form or pattern in his painting. The emergence of this idea was instinctive rather than a purely cognitive process. He was looking to produce a series of contemplative paintings that would provide himself and the viewer with an experience of integration and containment. Out of this exploration Allan produced a simple matrix structure that conformed to the instinctive idea that had driven this endeavour. This pattern when transposed is presented as a quaternary grid overlaid on the foundations of a square painted surface - a quaternity within a quaternity. These profound paintings are entitled ‘The Matrix Mandalas’ and this series continues to evolve. This use of a grid-like structure has echoes of the 2003 ‘Graves of Uchaf’ series. In this work Allan used a non-geometric arrangement of oblong and square blocks. He says these arrangements have similar attributes to the Mandala grids, that of creating balance and order.

During the period of 2005-07 Allan used a similar idea but of a different schema, of creating a foundation and overlay in the ‘Lattice Screen’ series enabling him to produce some beautiful paintings with unique colourations.

The ‘Parallel Series’ is a study influenced by the naturally occurring parallels that he encounters living within the impressive and ever changing environment of the North Wales coastal estuaries. This study is an interplay between naturally occuring phenomena and Allan's interest in the mirroring in his painting of internal and external worlds. These recent parallel paintings whose palettes appear to be influenced by the changing seasons and their continuous reconfiguration are produced through a specific process of reduction and revealing of layers that leave behind remnants. The resulting fragmentation in the paintings creates a three dimensional feel and is characterised by a unique mixing of colours.

This series has proven very fertile and has allowed Allan to extend and develop his painterly instinct and his interest in producing a visual dialogue between the experiences of integration and disintegration. ‘The Zen Parallels’ are particularly impressive within this series. ‘The Matrix Mandalas’ and ‘Parallel Series' are both still under development and are presented here to showcase Allan’s work to date.

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