Marcus Hodge 'Gateway To Abstraction'

GATEWAY TO ABSTRACTION | 15TH - 27TH JUNE 2026

This collection leads you from the equestrian paintings to an Aegean seascape where the texture and application of paint takes a more central place in the work. Moving onto the musicians and the Winter Palace, the figurative still discernible, and finally to many of the abstract paintings which reference the real world but in a more oblique and less discernible way. An artist’s journey from representation to abstraction is not a unique or unusual one. Often led by a desire to move towards something new and intriguing but also a need to relinquish the familiar. Each style informing the other.

Central though, in all the paintings my love of paint is, I hope, obvious. With the abstraction I began to discover a seductive quality in the freedom of application. Paintings, without a visual image to wrestle onto the canvas, could take you on an unexpected journey, the oil paint itself becoming the subject. The work can be used to express ideas but, at the same time, encourage the viewer to possibly see and feel unique things as they map their own experiences and emotions onto the image. A far more open language leading to any number of interpretations and an ability to take you to different and unfamiliar places.

The gateway series was a comment on the historical relationship between England and India, but also a metaphor for change and my own personal journey. The idea of infinite variety in repetition began to interest me as did the beauty of imperfection. One strives, not to control, but to orchestrate and give the expressive qualities of the materials as much freedom as possible. The paintings are equally about the process as about the finish, a process that may reveal something new and unexpected. The visual language is bold and simple, a balance between action and stillness. Less seemed to be more and forms became, sometime, simpler. I was struck by the Miles Davis quote “it’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play” and titled one of the paintings after his iconic album Kind of Blue. One strives to improve but merely trying harder doesn’t often give you the results you want. Just when you least expect it something is mysteriously and generously dropped into your lap.