Contemporary abstract artwork by Timothy Gent

Over the past few months, I’ve been creating contemporary abstract art that is a pure, personal responses to life. I’ve found them to be enjoyable (aside from the physical damage I inflicted to my forearm :-/) and it has been fascinating to work with different mediums. I was aiming to create some modern pictures and wanted to stick to water-based mediums. I settled on charcoal sticks and black ink but then I wanted some way of adding opaque colour.

In the back of my mind I knew about pastels but didn’t want to use softer pastels. I had a box of Filia oil pastels which my grandma bought but subsequently gave to me decades ago, along with a few other art materials. I never found the right place for them until I tried them for this series. Such rich colour and versatile texture! I did some research online and discovered that (as fas as I could tell), these kind of oil pastels actually rely on wax rather than oil together with the pigment to make a mark. So I was happy to work with them on uncoated, such as Fabriano Rosaspina and Arches Aquarelle watercolour sheets.

Coastal zing is inspired by the buzz, energy and sunlight of the urban coastline at Lytham St Annes. The movement along the sea front as well as a personal response to this particular place.

Cool of West Beach is inspired by the rush of movement along the urban coast in the centre of Lytham and the bright colours and light of summer. It has an organic fluidity within its planes of shapes.

The new contemporary abstract art series have abstract imagery but they are based on recent views and experiences of sunlit views at Lytham St Annes. The artwork is triggered by my response to experiencing the bright light, colours, movement and textures there. Also by the impressions I soaked-up during trips into town both at St Annes and Lytham and occasionally Blackpool. The sprawling coastline with its sandy beach with its many visitors, the bright sunshine highlighting the colours, shapes and the sights and the sounds.

As with many of my artworks, I used both sides, with the final art image shown backed by another version on the verso over which it is signed, titled and dated by Timothy Gent.

There is something magical and very satisfying about using paper as a support for these contemporary images. I love the fineness of texture, it is thin but tough and is just really enjoyable to work with.

Published September 2024