Exhibition of Portraiture – Artist Austin Butler
Austin Butler is a Mental Health Warrior and hugely talented Artist and Musician. Currently undertaking a BSC in Creative computer technology and programming Austin’s life has been tremendously difficult. The paintings are a testament to not only his talent but also to his times in hospital. We would like to educate and dispel any public misunderstandings around serious metal health diagnosis.
15th April – 24th May, FREE ENTRY, Venue Leigh Community Centre – upstairs and stairwell wall
INTRODUCTION TO ARTIST AUSTIN BUTLER
Austin has created art and painted since before he could read and write. Indeed, the first expressions of children are made in mark making, shapes, cutting and colour. Picasso is quoted as having said, “I want to be able to paint like a child.”
Austin’s paintings are as spontaneous as a child’s might be yet are painted with a huge amount of energy and observation. He seems to have insights that people rarely glimpse in a human face.
His portraits expound a gravity of being and at the same time detailed form leading the viewer towards the inner being of the object. They are at once figurative but also abstract. It is as if the viewer and the object are in close connection with one another. The depiction of what is living and what is shown in these series of portraits is something not typically observed, but seen and depicted by the artist in the subtle brush marks. The gaze outwards being the constant sign.
A colourist at heart and with huge historical art background, Austin is acutely aware of his palette. The intellectual application of tones and colour is at once subtle yet arresting. Take time to appreciate the skin tones of yellows, oranges, reds, greens, blues and reds. Almost utilising a Fauvist style (Matisse, Cézanne, Derain, Braque, Dufy and especially Chagall). For Austin, colour evokes spiritual qualities but his palette is not crude – despite what seems explosive colour (as with the Fauves) his palette is subtle and refined.
