25 Points of Interest
Trevor Richards
2006 | acrylic on canvas | accession number 776
purchased by the Art Board 2007 - Murdoch University Art Collection

Trevor RICHARDS

born 1954, Perth, Western Australia
lives and works Fremantle, Western Australia

Since 2000 Trevor Richards has taken the circle shape as a staring point to explore the materiality of paint and surface in his arts practice. A signature group of colours (blue, yellow, orange, green) has been used by the artist during this period to give coherence to a range of projects. This body of work has become an important stage in the artist’s career.

In 2006, Richards completed a large body of works which continued the artist’s exploration of the circle motif and signature colours, but introduced a new compendium of colours and exploration of circle motifs.

Technically, each circle in 25 Points of Interest has been hand painted directly onto the canvas using a compass and a brush. The work is based around 25 centres or points of interest relating to a 5 x 5 grid. The groups of centres, circles and rings were conceived in a spontaneous, relational way, that is what was done first influenced the next point of interest, and so on, rather than planning in advance.

The general idea was to balance these points across the canvas without any one point dominating the viewer’s attention. The sizes of each point of interest vary, but not in a random fashion, there is a smaller one and larger one, alternating.

It is difficult to view the work as a single image. As such, the viewer is asked to negotiate their personal way of looking at and navigating through the painting. It is the artist’s expectation that this work conveys a sense of cutting loose from restrictions and transmits a vibrant orchestration of a specific set of colours.

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