Luke King-Salter

Abstract painting is especially suited to the challenge of communicating because, like music and poetry, it has an expressive force capable of bypassing habitual ways of thinking and feeling. 

Each of my paintings is recognizably my own, but it is also an experiment dictated by its subject matter. As a matter of principle, I avoid working within a particular style, or my own comfort zone. I do not try to conceal the effort that goes into producing my paintings. Nevertheless, there is almost always a quiet lyricism in my work, regardless of whether it is overwrought or awkwardly executed, and an abiding belief in the unique meaningfulness of beautiful colours and forms.

 

The experience of nature is central to my imagery. I take my motto from Cezanne: 'Art is a harmony parallel with nature.' But art is a human invention, which reflects not only nature but also culture. Culture is a cumulative process. Learning to understand, assimilate, and creatively renew work begun by others has always been vital to the development of art and ideas. Therefore my paintings often connect to various historical and contemporary sources—usually poems, novels and pieces of music.

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Biography

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I grew up in two very different rural environments: in Pembrokeshire, West Wales and in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. From the proximity of nature in both places I acquired a taste for wilderness, which is evident in the organic forms of my paintings, as well as their complexity. Self-taught as an artist, I studied philosophy and anthropology in Australia and England, before completing a PhD in comparative literature at the University of Edinburgh in 2020. This formed the basis of my continuing interest in the history of ideas, and my desire to create art that is historically engaged and engaging.

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