Ian Davenport

Ian Davenport is an English abstract painter. In 1991 he was nominated for the annual Turner prize. Much of his work is made by pouring paint onto a tilted surface and letting gravity spread the paint over the surface. He usually works on medium fiberboard instead of canvas and often uses household gloss paint making his work very reflective.

 "His large-scale wall paintings are made using a syringe to pour paint, in vertical stripes, from the top edge to the floor. The painting process is formal and repetitive, like a scientific experiment, but the final image contains irregularities, where the paint is diverted by the wall surface, and surprises, where particular colour combinations create unexpected visual results."

 His work using dripped paint and gravity has been compared to the 1950s and 60s work of Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis.

Davenport is a fan of experimenting with different ways of applying paint to a surface. He has used water cans, pins, blown strands of it with a fan and even used a wind machine! His most successful experiment has been the use of syringes to apply paint.

 His choice of colours are inspired by lots of different things. Sometimes it is just intuitive, putting the colours together and seeing how they look. Other times he could lift a palette from an old painting or as he did once, from the opening sequence of The Simpsons.

He feels like he has discovered a language that he can now play around with. He never set out to create this style of work though. And that's the great thing about art - you're never too sure where you're going to end up. It really is a personal journey.