For the past twenty-five years, Bill Thompson‘s primary focus has been on the evocative power of color. As a painter with instinctual leanings toward Minimalism, the monochrome has served him well as a format for color exploration.
“Though my approach has changed dramatically over the years, there has been a consistent fixation on the objectness of a painting. Early iterations included thick, textured paint applications on wood panels, followed by pristine rolled acrylic surfaces on plywood. In the late nineties, I began altering and carving the substrate itself in an attempt to further activate the color experience.
Gradually I abandoned the square and rectangular format altogether and in the process, emancipated the support from its geometric constraints. This allowed for a more physical embrace of color’s expressive potential and in turn, forced a radical change in materials.”
The forms that Thompson has been creating for the past fifteen years are hand-carved from dense polyurethane blocks and then spray-coated with roughly twenty coats of automotive primer, custom-mixed color, and clear acrylic urethane.
They are typically wall mounted and in some cases, grouped in constellations. In recent years, the dimensions of his work have gradually increased but the results remain on a human scale. All of the work is executed in Thompson’s studio and done without the aid of design software or industrial cutting machines.
Images courtesy of Bill Thompson
Discover: www.billthompsonstudio.com
