My Space
Inside Out Magazine April 2009
Kerrie Davies
MY SPACE
PAUL DAVIES
While he’s fast gaining recognition for his paintings of deserted, modernist houses, the cliché of the artist who thrives on solitude doesn’t apply to Paul Davies. The Sydney artist shares his city studio warehouse with fashion designers Chronicles of Never and Asuza and the art directors of The Oxford Art Factory, Edward Woodley and Mark Drew. Next door is Missoni importers Spence & Lyda, opposite a crowded café.
Paul’s terrace house, a 15 minute walk away in Darlinghurst, is just as busy. He often sits on the terrace’s rooftop overlooking the urbanscape with girlfriend Sarah Noye.
“I used to work alone and I found it frustrating and isolating. You take yourself too seriously,” Paul, 29, says. “I like that I can walk away from a painting and have a coffee downstairs or the guys in the warehouse can come in to my studio. It’s still nerve wracking to let people see what I’m working on but I like the feedback. And I take photos home to show Sarah. As a fashion design student, she’s very aware of colour and composition so I value her opinion.”
Paul avidly collects architecture books (especially Bauhaus and Harry Seidler) art monographs, photos from travels, postcards and newspaper pictures to reference in his sought after paintings. A photograph found in an Aspen magazine during a recent trip sparked Paul’s enormous, eerie diptych of a bungalow hidden in bare branched trees. It will be the biggest of all 15 works in his 2009 show at Tim Olsen Gallery.
When friends come over for dinner, often Paul’s books and journals end up spread over his suitably retro dining table, generating inspired conversation. “I like looking at the bookcase with my books in it, because it is so visually contained. And I like my table, which I found in a second hand furniture store.” A natural collector, he spied his rooftop marais chairs at Surry Hills markets.
But his primary addiction is art. “I could have bought a house by now with what I’ve spent on art,” Paul laughs. “I like coming home to enjoy other people’s ideas. I’ve bought (Tim Olsen artists) Tim Summerton, Rhys Lee and Guy Maestri. We’ve become friends.”
“I keep one painting from each show as a record and I’ve kept some early works I did on found timber in London when I working there after leaving university,” Paul continues of his collection. “Looking back, I think they were the beginnings of this style of work that I’m doing now. The abstract works are mine too. They help me in not being so rigid in my painting.”
And when he can think of nothing to paint? He goes home and looks at a small, unremarkable painting given to him by a friend, Daniel, in London. “We painted together,” Paul says. “When I was stuck for ideas, he gave me this painting of an apple. He said, “When you don’t have an idea, go back to basics, and paint an apple.” So I did. I painted lots of apples!”
Now, he’s painting so much more, but it is always there to remind him after a long day in the studio just how far he’s come.
Paul Davies
Exhibition April 28 until May 17
Tim Olsen Gallery Sydney