Russ Sargeant

For me, painting is a process of discovery. It’s a way of exploring the inner emotional landscape and giving it form. I’m fascinated by the layers that make up our human experience, and by the different parts of ourselves that shape who we are.

I see my practice as something akin to archaeology, gradually uncovering meaning through experimentation and excavation. Much of this takes place in the space between faith and doubt, and the tensions that emerge from living with both.

Certain motifs find their way into my work again and again, including vessels, crosses, asemic writing, scribbles and fragmented geometry. These create a visual language of their own and can take on a symbolic quality, leaving room for each viewer to find their own interpretation.

Rather than trying to illustrate specific experiences or tell a particular story, I hope to create paintings that give a sense of things that are often difficult to put into words; spaces where hard-to-define moments and contradictions can be felt, acknowledged and personally interpreted.