Modern Artists Gallery is pleased to present new work by acclaimed artist, PAUL KESSLING.  

Additive Abstraction is the most significant exhibition of Kessling's work exhibited to date.

ADDITIVE ABSTRACTION
Artist  Paul Kessling and Lexicographer David Martin risk all for Abstract Art

Additive Abstraction    A seminal exhibition of abstract paintings by the artists Paul Kessling and David Martin will run from the 13th of October for 1 month at the Modern Artists Gallery Pangbourne, Berkshire

Additive Abstraction is an exhibition by two artists seeking “truth” not only in their paintings but also in the context of that great question: How should one live?
Kessling, an accomplished landscape painter, and Martin, an editor on the Oxford English Dictionary, resolved to dedicate themselves to the abstract in painting; this exhibition charts their respective journeys.

Taking the grounds of Rembrandts self-portraits as his starting point, Kessling uses large and exposed brush strokes of expressive power arranged with sculptural directness to create totemic icons of intelligent colours. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Kessling has recently achieved a record price for his painting at Christies.

Martin, born in Los Angeles, explores the simple “language line”, the lines that shape handwritten words denuded of their linguistic holding and recast as pure visual imagery.
Taking inspiration from his passion for James Joyce, Martin has accomplished a synthesis of idea and image; a kind of visual poetry in the abstract.

Paul Kessling

Born 1965, Dundee, Scotland.
Fine Arts Foundation Course   Goldsmiths College.
Fine Art - Sculpture BA             Wimbledon School of Art.
Fine Art - Sculpture  MA           Royal College of Art  

1989 RCA Travel Scholarship; Easter Island
1989-91 assistant to Sir Eduardo Paolozzi – Isaac Newton series
Exhibition
2007 – Additive Subtraction – Modern Artists Gallery  Reading Berkshire
Art for Life – Cancer Research UK - Christies
2006 - Solo Exhibition; Down to Earth - Modern Artists Gallery Reading Berkshire
Group Exhibition - Bodyline - Vale and Downland Museum Wantage Oxon
Art for Life - Cancer Research UK - Christies
2005 - Art on Paper - Royal College of Art.
Solo Exhibition - Eye on the Land - Wiseman Gallery Summertown Oxon
AAF - London
Painting commission - House of Lords - Modern Artists Gallery Reading Berkshire

2004 Art on Paper - Royal College of Art.
Art Pour Tous - Cannes.
Group Exhibition - Seed - Jelly Leg'd Chicken, Reading.
AAF - London
Art Space.
The Contemporary British Landscape    Modern Artists Gallery Reading Berkshire
2003 Art on Paper   Royal College of Art.
Solo Exhibition   Jelly Leg'd Chicken, Reading.
A Matter of Time   Wiseman Gallery Summertown Oxon
AAF London
2002 Art on Paper   Royal College of Art.
Solo Exhibition   Peterborough Arts Centre - New Hampshire.
Solo Exhibition  Wiseman Gallery Summertown Oxon
AAF London
Solo Exhibition   Ordovician and  Silurian  Modern Artists Gallery Reading Berkshire
2001 Art on Paper  Royal College of Art.
Solo Exhibition    Vale and Downland Museum  Wantage Oxon
AAF London with the Modern Artists Gallery Reading Berkshire
2000 Solo Exhibition  Malvern Theatres

"Born into the Nineties generation of Emin and Hirst, Kessling is as remote from the short-shock spectacle of Brit-Art as he could possibly be.  He was training as a sculptor under Eduardo Paolozzi at the Royal College of Art and was on a travelling scholarship to study the Easter Island statues when his career took an unexpected swerve.  Kessling hadn't much room for materials in his rucksack and had picked up some bottles of ink en route.  Back in England,he began to experiment with Japanese brushes and pure cotton paper, finding the true subject for his new technique when he moved to the Oxfordshire countryside.

All his paintings are made outdoors, from the top of his mobile studio: a customised Land Rover with a viewing platform on the roof and compartments for drawing boards inside.  In the summer, he is ofter up at 4am or still working as the light fades at 10am.  Everything he does is conditioned by the weather. Paintings can be rained off at short notice, or worked on for several hours, especially in the winter months, when the moist air keeps the paper from drying.  

Kessling's  art is  conditioned by the weather and the light, but also by the inks themselves; cobalt, Payne's gray, raw siena, rose madder, black in several different varieties.  Ink is even more volatile than watercolour.  The smallest pinprick can blossom into a fast-expanding pool on wet paper.  It takes extraordinary sleight of hand to keep the colours from spreading too far or too fast, to preserve the effect of slow-moving weather or the distance between foreground trees and a haze on the far horizon.

But Kessling has that skill.  He practices every day, like a virtuoso pianist.  With the same brush, he can make the finest of points or a two-inch wide wash.  He can track the approaching wind as it blows rain from the clouds in broad swathes; or pinpoint the tiniest crimson embers dying in the transparent twilight. Lately, he has been painting islands Lundy, the Scillies and the mountains of Scotland, where he acknowledges a debt to the Japanese artist Hiroshige.  But wherever he is, Kesslin's vision is the same: the ever-changing landscape and the great floating world of the sky. 
Laura Cummin - Art Critic, Observer

International attention  came to Paul Kessling when he was commissioned to paint a series of  'Landscapes at Dawn' for the  BBC TV Home Front series- featuring Lawrence  Llwelyn Bowen

The Palace of Westminster commissioned Paul Kessling to paint a series of work in the style of 1930's Transport Posters. This work is now on permanent display in the House of Lords new building Fielden House.

Paul Kessling accepts private and corporate commissions:
Please contact the gallery for further information.  Tel: 0118 9845893

Materials used:
Pure cotton rag acid-free watercolour paper. Mount board is acid free and all work is mounted using conservation tape.

Framing:
The frames are made from French Oak (a sustainable resource) and glazed with Conservation glass which cuts out harmful Ultra Violet light.

Care:
As with all works on paper, paintings should not be exposed to direct sunlight. Similarly they should not be positioned in such a way that condensation could form on the glass.
All pictures are mounted in off-white acid free mountboard. The dimensions quoted on the website are the external size of the mount. The mount is approximately 10cm. larger than the painting on all sides.