Greville Patterson on Time and Intimism
I first met Grev shortly after arriving in Australia during the spring of 1982. Grev is an outstanding creative thinker and communicator – a most gifted writer, composer, musician, poet and painter. In more recent years, we have become good mates, and catch up on a regular basis.
“For me, Rich’s pictures with their highly detailed, grid-articulated surfaces SLOW THE EYE down.
They force the eye to LOOK LONGER . . . . . They stop it from scanning.
The grids break the pictures down into zones that allow the eye to settle for a more lingering and intimate involvement with the subject; the forms; colours; details; etc . . .
His pictures don’t have a slippery, ‘get-it-all-in-one-take’, easy to dismiss quality . . . “There she is, Mona Lisa, funny little smile, move on then . . . “
The slowed down visual engagement Rich’s technique creates is, for me, the key to his INTIMISM.”