Artworks - Bex Barton

Bex Barton is an exciting young artist. Bex works on large oil paintings of dogs, and is interested in how she can present this subject in a more modern context than usual; removing the unfavourable and unfashionable stigma animal painting has gained. Artists statement In my work I try to treat the image of the dog with objectivity. I attempt to separate the form of the dog (and those things that I am interested in reproducing in my paintings: form, structure and anatomy) from the stereotypical sentimental image that is often depicted. The dog for me, with its vast diversity presents a fascinating figure that can be manipulated, broken down, rotated, cropped and edited with more objectivity than the human form. With this I can seek to create a different way of considering a common and familiar creature that has merged into our society. Whilst I do work with images of a variety of dogs I do find myself, time and again, returning to the English Bull Terrier. I’m attracted to the aesthetics of this breed in particular and it is also beneficial that this type of dog is perhaps perceived less sympathetically than others and is used less sympathetically. I work predominantly in oils and I enjoy painting large canvases. I use the ration of the image to the overall size of the canvas as a way of removing sentimentality, sometimes filling the whole canvas with the image, where with others; I leave the background neutral and uniform without any personal references.