“I want to titillate the senses. I want to draw people closer. I think people aren’t used to paying much-prolonged attention to paintings on walls and I want to allow people to have more of a sensory experience. I want to draw them in so that there is the opportunity for things to open up and for them to wander”
Ripples of electric blue and vivid red cascade through expertly layered illusionist shapes of green in Lucy Bull’s Weathermen from 2019, a mesmerizing example of her abstract paintings which realms akin to a psychedelic journey or a profound dreamscape. Coalescing and collapsing into an atmospheric abyss of color and form, this disorienting yet tranquil retreat into visual splendor offers a mystical meditation for the senses, creating a remarkably immersive experience in a world inundated with ephemeral images and trends. A centerpiece of Bull’s 2019 solo exhibition at High Art Gallery in Paris, Weathermen showcases the artist’s transcendent skill, as the intricate patterns and exuberant hues guide the viewer through the ebb and flow of the dreamlike experience that its composition evokes.
Situated in the visceral space between surrealist landscapes and psychedelic dreamland, Bull’s abstract compositions draw the viewer into a hypnotic trance of sensory experience. Drawing from a wide range of art historical influences, Bull’s captivating paintings harmoniously blend the vivid color fields reminiscent of color field artists such as Helen Frankenthaler and Sam Gilliam, with gestural marks that recall the Surrealist landscapes of Max Ernst, who developed the technique of grattage to record the grain of textured objects between layers of paint. Embodying the core Surrealist pursuit of unlocking latent subconscious potential, Bull’s ethereal creations inspire a delicate interplay between conscious and subconscious thought in the observer. This visceral engagement reflects Bull’s own artistic process, which navigates the balance between intention and spontaneity, as she uncovers fragments of forms from the abstract layers of her fluid brushwork. In the artist’s own words, “I want to titillate the senses. I want to draw people closer. I think people aren’t used to paying much prolonged attention to paintings on walls, and I want to allow people to have more of a sensory experience. I want to draw them in so that there is the opportunity for things to open up and for them to wander.” (The artist in conversation with Ophelia Sanderson, “Getting Lost in the Enigmatic Paintings of Lucy Bull,” Whitewall Magazine, 18 November 2021 (online)) In Weathermen, the artist continues to engage the medium of painting as both choreography of and experimentation with the ineffable possibilities of synesthetic perception, using her sublime fluency in color and texture to play gentle tricks on our eye, and with it, our mind.
