Jan Murphy Gallery is excited to present New Ground, the new solo exhibition from A.J. Taylor. At a distance, A.J. Taylor’s paintings offer convincing glimpses of the Australian landscape. Forests, rivers and beach scenes from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Stradbroke Island are captured in gentle sun-soaked tones.

Taylor’s distinctive surfaces are created through a time consuming process, in which several layers of paint are applied, then sanded back, creating a polished surface that retains a hint of each previous layer.

Describing his layered painting process Taylor says, “the nature of the ground – the colours, size and complexity of marks – then dictate the choice of subject, its mood and scale. In some places the ground marks happily stand in for elements of the represented image (dotted marks equal leaves, corrugated lines equal grass). Elsewhere, unlikely colours and anomalous shapes contradict visual logic, creating dynamic tension between ground and image.”

Taylor lives and works in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Taylor has been a finalist in a number of prizes, including the Wynne Prize, Fleurieu Art Prize, John Glover Art Prize, the John Leslie Art Prize, and the Hawkesbury Art Prize. His work is represented in public and corporate collections, including the Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra, Artbank, BHP Billiton, Macquarie Bank and the Museum of Brisbane.

Image credit: Pink ash and bloodwood, 2021, oil on board, 122.5 x 244.5 cm