Felix Middleton

@felix_does_art

In my work I play the role of a storyteller. Looking back, my paintings are an extension of my childhood and the storybooks I would read, the pictures on the front cover always showing an ambiguous scene and characters in outlandish settings to capture your attention. Reading was also a ritual, shared with my sister Gretel, - three books each night, taking turns to read and become the characters within the story.

The paintings are often not pre-planned, I don’t draw a sketch first, I just start, could be with a figure in a red hat, then I decide they are looking at something and so the story builds in that moment on the canvas as I sketch with paint. In many ways my painting practice is similar to reading a book, I never know how it will end until I’ve finished. I build the scene and characters as I sketch them and then as I add colour, the narrative is developed and enhanced - seeming to come to a kind of resolution.

Captured too is the intimacy of the moment, the reading of the story, together, much like a story shared between friends that they only know. In each setting the listener must add their own understanding, how characters are shaped, the mood and anticipated endings. It is this aspect I seek for the audience, that through my painting, they will add to the narrative; who are the characters for them through their own lived experience - …what story or situation does it evoke for them?

View the work: Building 24 Level 2,Rayner Hoff Project Space