Experiencing Cranston

Andrew Cranston: What made you stop here? 25 November 2023 – 2 June 2024 . I was fortunate enough to experience this much talked about exhibition by none other than Andrew Cranston. One foggy morning in March I woke up and drove five hours up north to The Hepworth Wakefield. I was greeted by my friend and fellow painter who had also just arrived at the museum, we were giddy like children as we had planned this moment for months. There was a tension, excitement that was bubbling up in me as I wandered through the Hepworth in search of Cranston. As I walked into this exhibition I was struck by a large painting that towered over me. Tiles, squares, koi and reflections appeared on the canvas as if it were a rich tapestry. I peered into it, it looked back at me. Instantly I was captivated. I took some time to absorb the painting, working piece by piece I wanted to let the works speak to me. Already I felt enveloped by the work. What a pleasure to experience paint, there is something special about a gallery that has the power to transport you. I was now in another world. I meandered through the space, with my attention jumping between works. Whether it be a colossal large scale painting on canvas or a tiny painting on a torn off book cover, the impact was the same. Greatly intimate works which pull on something inside yourself, they are calling out to you and playing with your senses. This is what I love about paint, it speaks of something more than itself. I observe how the paint is just a tool, a signpost to something that cannot be said. It tricks you into believing it is something real, that when you look away the scene is still there. These scenes carefully crafted by Cranston display moments of ordinary life, but with elements of the truth distorted. Creative misremembering he calls it, I mean when have you every seen a snake under the coffee table? Paintings became windows into lives that we can all place ourselves in. It comes back to this idea of art as seeing yourself in things that are not you. Each painting felt so considered but not constrained, as they came about on their own, almost hypnotising me as the viewer, and possibly Cranston when painting. It speaks to me in a language of no words, just marks and colour. The painterly techniques applied by Cranston are a lullaby just in themselves. The amount of times I just admired each pieces texture and play of paint, how the stories seemed to float out of the surface and lure me in. I think of it almost as approaching a rare exotic animal when finding myself in the presence of great painting. Its majesty and power requires you to take a moment, not to rush and overlook- as something could be hiding in plain sight. There are references which make you consider what has come before and begs us to question what is coming next, what is to be a painter right now? You cannot hide from how everything is intertwined, the distance between everything is shrunk down. By sharing a moment with the paintings, I am then indirectly with the artists, and in a projection of their thoughts and feelings. It acts as a mirror and allows for the deeper parts of me to come up, maybe a sense of familiarity? Loneliness? Perhaps it Is the mundane but reimagined and painted so beautifully and carefully it reminds us of the beauty in the little things. How you can get lost in the texture of a wall, the streaks of paint, pools of colour and reflections in varnish. How it all merges and tangles you within this oily world. Also not to be overlooked is the teaching of a painting, how taking the time to study these works in flesh has influenced my own practice. It has helped me to push the limits of what size I work on, from large works in my undergrad to extremely small works on paper that I have been experimenting with since the exhibition. The desire to achieve such intimacy and life within a work is something to sit with. It has taught me more about no rushing, but giving time to a painting to allow it to speak to you, mature like a wine and ask for attention only when it is ready.