John Slavin

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John SlavinJohn Slavin

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Statement

The painter has a vision which is blindly materialistic. 

A painting exists independently of the passing daily-visible and the omnipresent future-invisible.  A painting is a document of the density and sparsity of events at work in an elastic state which cannot be recorded other than by painting. A painting is the record of a performance in time up to a moment. 

A good drawing makes a connection between myriad truth and a pencil.  Each mark as it is made categorises itself in a re-categorisation.  Immediacy must be sustainable.  The definitive statement need not be preceded by the tentative gesture.  Surface may simultaneously expose and occult.  If one line is made three areas result. 

At work the painter is privileged to be in close proximity to something that is coming into being. Intimations of infinity must be prioritised finitely.  The painter can make no marks which are not of themselves whole.  All hierarchies are based on indefinite principles.

    

  

Biography

Born 3/2/1956 in Falkirk.  John Slavin attended Edinburgh College of Art 1975-1980 and studied in the School of Drawing and Painting under the celebrated painters Sir Robin Philipson and Dame Elizabeth Blackadder.  Landscape painter on the Isle of Skye now working in the Pyrenees.

Exhibition History

3 Dec - 28 Jan 2017Winterescence, a warm and bright counterpoise to the chill and shade of winter, exhibition of 14 artists to celebrate Scottish winter
23 July - 25 Sept 2016Par Nature, exhibition of 7 artists at Galerie, Grand Rue, 11190 Bugarach, France
May 2016Andorra online exhibition at all-andorra.com/john-slavin
Jan - Feb 2015Visual Arts Scotland:Transforming
Jan - Feb 2014End of Winter at Doubtfire Art Gallery, Stockbridge
Nov 2014 - Jan 2015RSA Exhibition of Fine Art
Feb - Mar 2014'John Slavin: New Works' at The Sutton Gallery, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
Nov - Dec 2013The Sutton Gallery: Winter Exhibition, Edinburgh EH3 6HZ
Nov 2013 - Jan 2014Royal Scottish Academy: Open Exhibition at The Mound, Edinburgh
15 - 29 June 2013'Pyrenean Landscapes: Paintings by John Slavin' at the Sutton Gallery, Leicester
2 - 17 March 2013'The Art of John Slavin' at Collingwood College, Durham University presented by The Sutton Gallery
Dec 2012 - Jan 2013'A Doubtfire Winter', Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh
Nov 2012 - Jan 2013Royal Scottish Academy of Fine Art, RSA, Edinburgh
Nov - Dec 2012'Salt River Sacred Mountain: Pilgrimage to the Pyrenees', Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
July - Aug 2012'Imaginary Summers' at Doubtfire Gallery, Edinburgh
Sept - Oct 2011'Cascades of the Upside Down Mountain. Narrative Landscape Painting' at Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh
March 2010Glasgow Art Fair
Feb 2010Eastwood Park Theatre, Giffnock, East Renfrew Council
Aug 2009Plockton Hall, Lochalsh