Walter Crump

Art Brokerage: Walter Crump American Artist: b. 1941. For me, painting is a kind of alchemy of controlled accidents, random play and unexpected relationships that acquire significance in the making and layering the surface. Imagery aside, my work reflects a love affair with surface and relies increasingly on working with translucent mediums, like shellac, as well as odder substances including metal patinas, powders and photographic chemicals. As layers are built up, the earlier areas remain dimly visible beneath, playing a role in the outcome of the finished work. In this sense, the surface becomes an archeological record of the making of the painting. My recent work consists of a series of abstract paintings and altered/painted photographic portraits. I seek ways for these compositions to look as if they are suggestive of an indecisive age, in which they could have been altered or embroidered over the years, perhaps by others who might have come into contact with them. Along the way, they become luminous wrecks, leaving surface maps chronicling the signs and blemishes of creative use and images that have been tainted by the sun, weather and the seasons. Listings wanted.