Oliver Marsden British, b. 1973

Oliver Marsden’s creative process can be seen as a daily practice, as all preparation - a preparation to see – a clearing away, a focusing of perception, in order for his paintings to speak, or rather sing for themselves. Not only are his works replete with musical references, it is his whole approach, his praxis that accords with a musical sensibility. He attunes himself in his preparation to make a painting, his daily routines evolved over a 25 year span of painting with physical and mental discipline. He trains himself in the art of seeing as a form of listening.

Marsden's desire was to strip a painting down to the simplest raw elements with which to explore perceived form and space in a quest for truth. His works reference the enlightened auras and halos of saints and buddhas. An aura of energy. "OM" the vibrational seed sound. If God were to paint a canvas what would he paint? Hindus believe that as creation began, the divine, all-encompassing consciousness, took the form of the first and original vibration manifesting as sound "OM". Following this idea, Marsden proposes his halo works as “a universal painting”. He paints freehand with an airbrush and “sculpts” the form to a resonating point of balance.