Kieran Stopp
artist statement.
My work is essentially split between seascapes and abstracts, paintings, and etchings. When I feel like working methodically and with precision, I’ll create an etching. I love the labour and the payoff. There’s a richness to the blackness of an etching. When I paint, I really enjoy working on seascapes. The ocean fascinates me and inspires much of my work. It terrifies me and enchants me. At times, it’s scarily powerful. At others, it's chill and serene. I like to interpret its qualities, the interplay of light and shadow, refractions, colour, and movement. But sometimes, I feel like working more loosely and creating an abstract. I like the immediacy and expressiveness of abstraction. The fact they make viewers think and feel and interpret their own things. What I’ll often do is work on the same piece over and over. By the end of an abstract, the work’s usually been through many iterations, some barely visible by the end. But I like that sort of story.
