Taking landscape as an initial starting point, my paintings are not about literal representation; instead, the focus is on the emotive qualities of place. Using an objective palette tied to the Scottish landscape, colour acts as a vehicle to reveal the picture planes underlying points of reference. With the structure, design, and colour harmony being grounded in the everyday, the viewer is encouraged to readdress notions of their surroundings, where the familiar is opened up and made full of possibility.
Having emerged against the background of a strong Scottish figurative tradition, my paintings reject narrative, instead drawing influence from a history of Colour Field Painting and Post Minimalist art. My work is an investigation into the material properties of paint, the emotive characteristics of colour, and a fascination with the process of painting.
The work looks to invoke a condition, the spirit of place that is conceptually framed by time, memory, and the accumulation of experience. They operate as a bridge between abstraction and representation - functioning as both simultaneously. Neither impression can be isolated, as each continuously emerges from and recedes into the other. A period of quiet focussed looking is required, where fragments of recollections emerge, raising questions about what can appear familiar, with definitive answers only reflecting a loss of possibility.
Eric Cruikshank (born Inverness 1975) graduated with a BA (Hons) Painting and Drawing from Edinburgh College of Art in 1997 and lives and works in Edinburgh. His artworks have been included in exhibitions throughout the UK, Europe, America, and Japan, and he has been the recipient of several awards and residencies. Cruikshank’s artistic practice spans an array of media with distinct series bracketed according to support - with the collective factor being the addition and subtraction of medium - all completed with a meticulous finish.