{"title":"William Watkin","description":"My art is marked by a strange amnesia.  For thirty years I forgot the obsessive artist I was as a child, even though I remained fascinated by looking at art.  Then one day I saw a video of Gerhard Richter scrape-painting and it was as if someone flicked on a light switch in my memory.  In an instant the feeling I should be doing that, was replaced by, I used to do that.  I began painting the next day.  That was 10 years ago.\r\n\r\nMuch of my practice is informed by my intellectual life. I am a world-leading expert in contemporary, continental philosophy.  I am not a conceptual artist so much as a painter who pursues arguments in paint.  I paint thoughts, basically, not their content, but their form.  \r\n\r\nI am also fascinated by contemporary digital information systems and their combination of random noise and formal algorithms.  Inspired by rule-governed procedures in New York music and poetry, I establish simple algorithms or rules, before I paint.  At the moment the primary rule is \"I only scrape.  I add paint, I take it away\". \r\n\r\nYet at the same time abstract expressionism also informs my practice.  I find I am intuitive, yet systematic.  Another rule is \"Do not plan, do not make choices.\" I like to think of my practice as constructivist expressionism.  In this way my work echoes that of digital culture, the constructed nature of online interaction moderated by the random affordances of how the systems actually play out.  \r\n\r\nYet there is always a nagging, almost Freudian aspect to the scraping that makes me think, is there a personal, emotional side to my art, and of course our online lives?  As I scrape, I build up abraded, complex, textural surfaces.  These surfaces cover up previous surfaces, ones which can be revealed later, by scraping back, but never entirely as they once were.  Adding to the surface creates a physical palimpsest much like our online data.  Nothing is ever truly deleted.  \r\n\r\nWhy did I stop painting as a child?  With each scrape I ask that question.\r\n\r\n","products":[{"product_id":"i-was-left-to-pick-up-the-pieces","title":"I was left to pick up the pieces","description":"Thick acrylic paint on high quality watercolour paper.  The piece comes framed in a black frame.  It is a signed, original painting.  One of a sequence of 4 all using the same palette.","brand":"William Watkin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45118528749854,"sku":"INV-WATW-0002","price":76.13,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/b216f555-40cd-43c7-9a74-28a54a4c8381-l_7ae0b21a-1628-49dc-8497-3a208e0a6d1c.jpg?v=1703403255"},{"product_id":"something-flew-past-my-face","title":"Something flew past my face","description":"Acrylic paint on high quality watercolour paper.  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Signed and dated, 1 of 1 this is not a print.","brand":"William Watkin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45160170520862,"sku":"INV-WATW-0017","price":63.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/46bb0c4c-8fba-452e-96f6-6bc5d8373c0d-l.jpg?v=1703404583"},{"product_id":"we-took-to-the-caves","title":"We took to the caves","description":"Gloss acrylic on HQ watercolour paper.  The gloss scrapes produce very strong colour and deep texture.  Very power pieces when they catch the light.  Inch border all around, perfect for framing.  Signed and dated 1 of 1, these are not prints.","brand":"William Watkin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45160171405598,"sku":"INV-WATW-0016","price":63.44,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/819e0b16-60ef-424f-8efb-a812ae192fe6-l.jpg?v=1703404603"},{"product_id":"caves-of-fire-and-ice","title":"Caves of fire and ice","description":"Gloss abstract acrylic on HQ watercolour paper.  The gloss acrylic scrapes produce very strong colour and texture.  The gloss in the light is wonderful. Inch border all the way around perfect for framing, Signed and dated. 1 of 1. 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