Local artist Paul Lemmon’s pixelated oil paintings blur the lines between digital and analogue, abstract and figurative, prompting more questions than answers
Paul Lemmon is a bit of a contradiction. His work is largely created using traditional oil paint on board, yet his finished work encompasses the essence of the digital world scraped, deconstructed and turned into analogue works of art. Paul’s pixelated works are created by collecting then breaking apart digital images and film footage blurring the lines between real life and technology.
He says it’s quite ironic standing in front of a painting made from physical board and pigments derived from the earth yet created by scraping the digital world. Paul describes his work as floating somewhere between abstract and figurative. He says: “I play around, disrupt, make images collide. I let the computer do it by accident almost.”
It’s quite a technical process to arrive at a composition – masking film, laying paint down, finding a pattern, asking is there an image there? Paul says: “There’s a meditative aspect to it and I always sleep better when working. Each piece needs to be more than pleasing. It needs to compel you to think, so I’m always considering the experience of the viewer.”
COVENTRY BIENNIAL
Paul is represented by Forward Gallery in Birmingham and RVP in London which is somewhat of a relief. He used to sell his work directly which involved a lot of juggling so he’s glad to hand some of that to the gallery and focus on his work. Paul takes on private commissions as well as public projects and selling to the general public. He says simply: “I make objects that hopefully people want to buy.”
One of Paul’s highlights so far was taking on a major commission for Coventry Biennial. In collaboration with University of Warwick professor Graeme Macdonald, the large-scale piece titled, Memories of a Future City catalogues imagined future events in Coventry leading to the transition from fossil fuel to clean energy. It represents the dynamics of environment and time, and the forces at play in energy transition. The completed piece consists of four painted panels sat together to form a six-metre wide piece that Paul’s particularly proud of. He says: “It was a privilege to create a timeline into the future for the people of Coventry. It was in a public place with good footfall and as a result I met some great people.”
SURREAL SOLIHULL
Paul also took part in Surreal Solihull earlier in the year where he exhibited his surrealist painting titled, And Takes Me to My Dreaming, which featured among the work of 29 artists as part of an original outdoor exhibition along Solihull’s High Street. The work now hangs at the entrance to Touchwood shopping centre on Station Road.
Paul didn’t have a traditional route into fine art, if indeed there is such a thing. Initially, he decided university wasn’t for him post-A levels and embarked on a YTS scheme apprenticeship, then completed a BTec at Mid-Warwickshire College before studying graphic design at Kingston. He says: “It was a strange time. It was polytechnic when I joined and a university when I left.”
Post graduation, Paul worked in London as a graphic designer for 14 years before believing he could build a career as an artist. In the early noughties he visited exhibitions like Frieze London which lit the fine art fuse in him. Having said that, much earlier in life he was a prolific drawer and painter. He fears he may have worried his mother when at nursery he was given a piece of paper and some paint, and he painted the entire thing black. Not like his lively technicolour pieces today.
Musing on the future and the rise in popularity of AI, Paul says: “I can see it coming over the horizon and I’m aware of the threat, but I don’t think AI can replicate oils. I guess scams are possible.” For Paul, his art is a spiritual experience as well as physical and surely something that’s safe from the march of the tech revolution.