Artist Statement - Phil Delisle

I am a painter specializing in works which explore the process of making art. My interest is to investigate the role of the artist and the purpose of the activities in which we engage.

My works over the past few years include instruction style images and paintings whose subject matter is the process of painting. These works are vignettes of the artist’s experience. They examine seemingly unimportant moments such as the washing of a brush or the masking of a slide and recontextualize them as the subject rather than the means. My intention is to carefully observe my own artistic activities, to reflect on them and to gain insights through making paintings about them.

In my current body of work I seek to generate new ideas about the nature of art by playing with images of self documentation. I have created a series of works which depict layers of paintings within paintings and incorporate the imagery from previous pieces. I find the boundaries between subject and viewer become distorted within these layers, and I’m increasingly interested in this overlap of reality and art.

Oil Paintings

My oil paintings are generally non-objective works in which I take particular interest in the compositional and structural elements as well as the effects of layering on the surface. I create these works through a multiple stage process, usually working on several works concurrently. I try to arrive at a rich surface through erasing and repainting, obliteration, reworking and constant re-evaluation. I enjoy the process of discovery in these works and I try to take cues from the work itself as to what direction to take.