The Art of Louis
Moncrieff
A quest for aesthetic
simplicity by the working family man Painter
Louis Moncrieff -
White Noise 2018
acrylic on canvas
102 cm x 102 cm
Louis
Moncrieff’s studio praxis space only comes to life at the end of the day after
family and working life. It’s an aesthetic space dominated by all the things
that happen in clock time between waking up and sleeping so it affords precious
moments in a busy world where the intermittent thoughts coalesce late at night
and are then forged into paintings. Studio painting praxis under pressure from
life’s external demands in providing food, home, love and caring for his
family, as well as full time employment is a working well for Moncrieff within
this current series of artworks as he strives for the idea of simplicity.
Simplicity
is hard to achieve within one’s life, let alone in painting it, as it doesn’t
happen so easily. Rather it comes from the systematic unravelling of the myriad
of unnecessary wants and desires experienced within quotidian life. For
example, some Buddhists spend their entire existence in trying to achieve
simplicity as it is considered a utopian way of being, thus producing a clarity
of vision regarding what might be necessary and unnecessary in one’s survival.
Moncrieff’s
painting (see above titled White Noise 2018) in some ways reminds me of
artworks by the American artist Agnes Martin and how she partially used Zen
Buddhist philosophies amongst other metaphysical and phenomenological sources
in her pursuit of uncluttered imagery. But in Moncrieff’s White Noise painting
there is the realism of frenetic daily work and family life portrayed though
the greyish chromatic paint marks, much like an old black and white television
without a focus. Yet, in another way, it’s a self-portrait as a sounding board
for his busy schedule of work, home and play as, emerging through these greyish
paint marks and representative of that dense fog of daily life. is a series of
thin but very focused linear circles.
Within
the painting titled White Noise Moncrieff’s painted circles seem to have their
origins in Japanese Ensō aesthetics as they materialise, being a representative
series of profound moments of enlightenment where things become harmonised
through personalized clarity. They
appear almost like some metaphysical apparition, a refuge against the tide of
human wants that certainly serve to clutter contemporary daily life, signifying
intelligent painting
Moncrieff
is now on a painterly journey of enlightenment through the theme of simplicity
giving rise to the problem as to how does one paint such a complex idea? In the
aforementioned painting Moncrieff has partially answered that question
convincingly and is now well on his way to achieving a unique contribution to
the uncharted horizons of personal painterly minimalism.
Dr
Peter Davidson
Painter