Jim Rattenbury Biography

Jim Rattenbury was born in London in 1947. Lives and works in Andalucia, Southern Spain. Trained first at the College of Art in Cheltenham U.K. and then a the Ravensbourne College of Art and design in London,U.K. A bursory in 1969 brought me to Andalucia.

Exhibited throughout Europe both in one man shows and group shows.

Artist's Statement

Living and working in the mountains of Southern Spain, the light, the shadows, the intensity of color and the clarity of the air all infuse the pieces I make. I work in both two and three dimensions and find that the painting informs the sculpture and vice versa. One is more intuitive and the other more physical, but for me they are one activity. Both draw on the emotive power of abstracts form in their own manner. I like to think in terms of dialogues between objects, and the spaces between them resonating to produce a visual language to which the viewers respond in their own unique ways. My imagery takes reference from a multitude of visual sources that interests me but is usually developed and unrefined through drawing and manipulating on a computer using a digital pen and tablet as an extension of the traditional layout pad. The attraction of painting for me, as a sculptor, is freedom from the physical restraints of structure. Nothing has to physically hold together apart from staying on the surface of the paper/canvas/panel used as a support. When I paint I create a window into another space and, at the same time, an object which is a part of this world. Illusionary objects can rise above, or sink into the surface. Layered paint and applied objects add a physical presence. Marks can be buried to re-emerge later so that time, history and change become elements of the work. Evidence is revealed when layers are cut into, or rubbed through, uncovering what lies underneath. Illusion and reality can come together or go their separate ways. Painting is an act of constant intuitive decision making; adding, eliminating, adjusting, until there is nothing there unless it contributes to the whole. When the work is done, it’s often the smallest of marks, the tiniest change, which has brought it to its conclusion.