My paintings are about my direct experience of the contemporary world. The images I’m drawn to are primarily urban - swimming pools, cafe bars, contemporary interiors, foreign cities, parks - often with an isolated figure or figures defining their personal space within a public environment. I want the overall ‘effect’ of the colour and light to be synthetic as well as descriptive of a particular mood, time, space and place.
My paintings are about light and colour, particular places, people and times of day. Whether a fragment of a figure observed or the figure(s) seen as part of some kind of architectural structure within an urban environment, the concern is always to paint the momentary glimpse of an image. Although a photograph plays an essential role in finding an image, my working procedures involve making numerous drawings and colour studies before and during the process of painting. The final image is often distanced from its original photographic source. The most recent series of paintings are about turning what might be considered a detail or fragment of a painting into a fully realised image. Scale plays a major role in these works - the paintings are not large but the forms within them are often over life size.
Originally from Maesteg, Gethin Evans studied Foundation at the Byam Shaw School of Art, a BA in Painting at Camberwell School of Art, and a Higher Diploma in Fine Art at the Slade School of Art. He has lived and worked in London since then.
Early influences include Italian painters of the 14th and 15th Centuries, particularly the frescos of Masaccio and Piero Della Francesca, which he encountered on a travelling award to Italy when studying at Camberwell School of Art. The modern and contemporary world of café bars, anonymous city streets, and the people who inhabit them are the source material for narratives that hint at hidden storylines.