This painting explores how a spectrum of interference pigment colours changes in appearance when brushed across a textured underpainting of dark French Ultramarine blue and contrasting white impasto dots. The dots themselves form a fragmentary text naming the atmospheric phenomenon ‘Sea Smoke’. It is a one-to-one scale section of a planned larger work, which uses a carefully measured template to overlap five very liquid prismatic hues forming an intermingled drip-painted spectrum that is randomised by the texture beneath.
Inspired by Zen calligraphy techniques, each liquid stroke was executed in alternating directions during the exhalation of a single breath. Jonathan Parsons is known for the diversity of his practice, which includes installation, sculpture, found objects, drawing, painting and fabrication. He was selected for the British Art Show 5 (2000) and was one of the youngest artists to be included in the notorious Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts (1997). Recent solo exhibitions include: Spectroscopic, Coleman Projects, London (2024), The Black Drawings, Bunker Gallery, Isle of Wight (2022) and Scribble and the Structures of Depiction, Hardwick Gallery, Cheltenham (2021). Public collections include the Arts Council of England Collection, London Transport Museum and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
