Tait Sengstock

Paintings

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In his first major solo exhibition since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts, artist Tait Sengstock is showing a collection of paintings; oil and watercolours.

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Tait is an early career artist who is exploring the concepts of reality, place, human relationships, narrative and memory through figurative painting.  His work is an attempt to realistically represent people in spaces: the natural landscape, social space and imagined spaces  The paintings shown are what he believes to be his most successful efforts at conveying the complexity of his endeavour thus far.

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Created over the past four years, the paintings describe an array of situations where people are either alone or in a social scenario. Each picture is suggestive of particular narratives but falls short of a specific meaning or singular interpretation.  The figures are both dramatised and representations of the people as themselves.

 

“When Painting, I  am pulled by the potential of an image that evokes feeling and emotion for me and therefore hopefully for others. This can be a romantic feeling, or a strong sense of the scene being real or the image somehow captures an essence of the person or space that I had not previously seen. In short, my process is driven by discovery. Decipherable meanings come later but are not excluded from the final effect.”

 

Many of the paintings, such as the largest of the oil paintings, were painted outdoors in locations in and around Melbourne. On location, the artist has responded to the colour and energy of the place. By working from life, Sengstock captures the presence of a moment in time, and leaves that moment fresh on the picture surface. 

 

“The large oil paintings are at a scale that can allow the figure to be painted at life-size while allowing room around it for the space to be depicted also. This, combined with the depth of colour that can be achieved in oil paint adds to a sense of reality.“