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Water off a Fish’s Back
In stock: 1
£2,500.00 £2,500.00
Tax included. 
Description

‘I love the expression ‘water off a duck’s back’. It is such a visually simple and literal saying, yet it can be a powerful representation of a life lesson that has helped me enormously. Although we, and obviously fish too, do get wet from the water, it is one of the things I have learned to get better at as I have got older. So many small things that used to upset me, I now just shrug off. Life is so much simpler and calmer as a result. The painting tries to capture us all going about our day without drama.’

‘All of my work is created by blowing acrylic paint using only my breath. I do not use any equipment at all (including straws) and do not physically touch at all the canvas or glass on which I paint.’ I am an artist inspired by the movement of water and the way the water surface abstracts the aquatic forms below. My paintings explore this combination, using palettes of contrasting colours and negative space. As in nature, the ever-changing light on the paint reveals the subtle texture of the water caused by its own flow and that by the form beneath. Through my work, I hope to express the calmness and intrigue that water brings me. Work that continues to surprise and brings tranquillity to a space and some serenity to people’s lives. This price is for the unframed art only.'

Acrylic on canvas. Frame not included in price.

Size (not including frame): 160cm x 100cm.

Location: On display in the gallery in Wimbledon.

Frequently bought together

The Artist

AJ Burns

AJ Burns painted prodigiously as a child but was “actively discouraged” by his teachers and family from taking art in high school. He swapped paint for a set square, ruler and pencil, focused on maths, and went on to study civil engineering.
After years as a successful entrepreneur in the UK and SA, he founded a vodka distillery and then Covid prohibition hit. At a loose end, AJ attended an art class with an old friend and a good 35 years after he’d laid down his brushes, he found himself “playing with acrylics” in a neighbour’s garage.

He was intrigued to see how the paint moved but there was no electricity in the garage to move the paint with a hair dryer or any other equipment. So out of frustration, he blew the paint with his mouth to see what would happen and loved the way one colour moved through another.

Three years on and AJ is still literally breathing his life into his large, expressionistic fish artworks: he lays down one paint colour, drops a second on top of it and then blows the second colour through the first, creating vibrant movement. The effect is a burst of energy, colour and texture that evoke a range of emotions.

“I love the unpredictability of it,” he enthuses. “The paint seems to come to life - it keeps moving even when I’ve finished. And the colours change during the drying process.” (This can take up to two weeks in winter as it’s often 3 or 4mm thick.) “It’s always exciting to go back the next day to see what’s happened to the painting.”

AJ’s work has been sold to clients around the world and is currently represented in selected South African and UK galleries.
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