Euan Uglow

Euan Uglow is an underground hero to painting. He has been the subject of many traveling shows recently. With a process that relies on strict measurements using a tool of his own design. Nature without convention was his motive. Some of Uglow’s paintings took upwards a year to complete.

Uglow is doing something that is quite intriguing with his paintings. He has effectively left traces of his hand all over the picture plane. The paintings become about the process, which is visible with the diagrammatic lines left behind. Uglow approached his paintings with a scientific mind, as a result they are like pages full of equations leading to a conception of the natural world. The resultant figures look as if they are constructed in geometric planes of color and value, describing various topographical complexities in the form. This segmentation of shape helps each keep its own against the whole composition.

Eglow’s color is always fresh (in his later work), he is mixing every transition up and down the form rather than scumbling colors together. He goes to great lengths for an aesthetic, which takes quite a bit of dedication. That is what’s fascinating about the idea of coming up with a concept before form. It creates a style which is unique to the idea. Uglow’s method of painting is born out of his conception that art should be like nature. His work is strongly topographical as a result. Rather than using paint like De Kooning to express conceptual truths through the application of paint, Uglow is using paint to illustrate observable truths. That is the difficulty with these paintings, they do not offer that personality and come off as a little analytical and cold. The formal aspects of his work would inspire any formal junkie or figurative painter with its nuanced observations and Uglow’s visible handy work despite this criticism. However, his work should be taken with a grain of salt. Uglow’s method of painting evolved from the idea of concept before form, that is what makes it personal. He is one of those rare painters which forces you to reevaluate your own aesthetic, because the paintings are so visually compelling.