Dale Mackie
Great Grimsby Docklands & Sea II, Paintings and Drawings
Born in Cleethorpes, I left school with no qualifications but with a great interest in art. It was not until 20 years after leaving school that I followed my passion and enrolled for an O level Art Class. Diplomas and a Foundation courses soon followed and with encouragement from my tutor my education finally culminated in a BA (Hons) in Visual Studies. Since that time I have exhibited all over Lincolnshire and in Hull and my paintings are housed in private collections nationally.
As a local man born and bred I have always had a strong affinity towards the Towns fishing heritage. In my paintings I use historic images of the old Grimsby Fish Docks and its trawlers which I source from old family documents and newspaper images. Local people also often produce their photographs and records for me to use, keen for them to be recorded for posterity. I am also pleased to include and exhibit my drawings for the first time which is an intrinsic part of my painting progress.
Of particular interest are the situations of men at work, human interactions and relationships that are captured in iconic scenes of fishing trawlers rough and marred by use and the elements or, emotive paintings of fish sales on the old Pontoon that literally bustle with characters trying to be recognised. Paintings that are packed tightly with buildings, people and other structures that seems to occasionally defy three dimensional space.
I choose my subject according to my own psychological response to certain places rather than a desire to photographically render what lies before me. This intrinsic feeling that I have for this area breeds an inner confidence, as familiarity with my subject matter allows me the freedom to concentrate on developing the creative process of experimenting with my painting.
My new body of work retains the essential essence of previous works, yet I attempt to further push the boundaries of colour, subject matter and content to a new level.
Abstract Work
Blackholes and Supernovas
My passion for colour was always going to play a part in this exhibition, the paintings are all based on actual photos taken from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The canvas is made up of random layers of pva applied in similar fashion to a Jackson Pollock painting with acrylic paint added after each layer, there could be 5 - 10 layers in all.
I have tried to recreate the colours and the images with abstract interpretation I'm not a mathematician but I found random points on the canvas being turned into triangular formations that represented the remnants of a supernova explosion.
Knowing what colours to add was quite a challange with so many hues to play with it would have been easy to get lost in space literally.
Dale Mackie