Single Lotus 1992

Gary Wragg made Single Lotus at some point using paint on a large canvas. The colour palette is earthy, punctuated by brighter blues and reds, and the marks are so immediate. You get the sense of artmaking as an experimental process; a back and forth between intention and accident. Up close, the materiality of the painting is striking. There's a real physicality to how Wragg applied the paint. In some areas, the paint is thick and opaque, built up in layers, while in others, it's thin and transparent, almost like a stain. Look at the meandering pale grey line on the right side, see how it almost hovers on the surface? It’s as if he was teasing out a sense of depth and flatness all at once. Wragg's paintings remind me a little of Cy Twombly's work - that same sense of freedom and spontaneity, but with a uniquely British sensibility. For me, the real beauty of this painting lies in its ambiguity; it invites us to bring our own associations and interpretations to the work.