Page 6 - Sharon Hall: Meeting Points

Charged Presence

The first thing to say about Sharon Hall’s paintings is to note how they operate
in a sympathetic space. Large paintings tend to radi ate outwards and dominate
their surroundings. Small paintings, as most of Sharon Hall’s are–provided that
they are sympath etically hung and given enough wall space–more often than
not bring that space into play and activate it in what can feel like a low-key, vis -
ual gravita tional field. This general effect is reinforced in many of the recent
paintings by the fact that they are structured–with surfaces divided by clear
vertical, horizontal and diagonal divisions–around the basic fact of the rectang -
ularity of the canvas, which in turn relates to the much larger rectangle of the
wall on which they are hung. To walk into a space in which these paintings are
shown is to sense the charge of their presence. They may be discrete and self-
contained, but when exhibited these works operate in a space which extends
outside themselves.

Over the years the use of colour in Sharon Hall’s work has changed. The unify -
ing sense of light emerging from sometimes dramatic contrasts of tone and
colour in works from a few years ago has become modified–perhaps more
defined, certainly more perva sive–as colours have become increasingly
nuanced and glazes have been used to create wider and more subtle spatial
effects. There are paintings in which muted, opaque colours butt against each
other, their relationship sharpened by contrasting wedges of luminous pale -
ness; and there are others in which the light emanates from beneath the paint
and through layers of glazed colour to create indeterminate spaces. In both
cases the atmos pheric quality of the colour offers a contrast and count erpoint
to the incisive divisions of the canvas and the surface-emphasising way in which
the paint is brushed. Tensile surfaces and translucent depths are brought into
play, with edge-defining bands of stronger colour giving definition when
needed. Hard-edged areas are infused with atmospheric colour to produce
an overall effect of painterly orchestration. These recent paintings are the works
of someone so experienced in her medium–so in control of her resources–
that she can use it to create works which are not only compelling in themselves
but which, when they are shown, can magnetise the spaces around them.

Stuart Bradshaw April 2024