Chuck Webster

Region: Northeast

 My work concerns scale in relationship to the size of the body and mind. I approach a picture as something both internal and external, handheld and deep as thought, static yet moving. I want the paintings to contain the time of their making and refuse to give it up.

I am very connected to the materials I use. Each process demands its own kind of touch and actions. Tools, surfaces, and paint combine to release energy. The raw material transforms from powder and medium to a moving, living thing instilled with emotion, form, and narrative.

My process involves addition and negation, putting on paint and scraping it off again and again until a fragile tension is achieved. Painting is like finding a way to exist in the world, seeking a sense of harmony with the present and the past. Linear time compresses, memories emerge and recede. I want a viewer’s quick glance to feel like hours, as though they went into the picture unreservedly and felt something new.