Ray Malone makes beautiful, questioning paintings, moving from one approach to another with a freedom that belies the continuity of his enquiry.

His works mine a rich seam in abstract painting, exploring the interplay between rectilinear form and more expressive brushstrokes, charged colour and visceral mark-making. But, whatever the mode of the individual work, his paintings all engage with otherwise neglected processes of perception.

’Painting is neither a particular method, nor a particular set of techniques’, says Malone. ‘It is not about any one thing, nor is there any one subject either more or less suitable to it. It is possible that…

Ray Malone makes beautiful, questioning paintings, moving from one approach to another with a freedom that belies the continuity of his enquiry.

His works mine a rich seam in abstract painting, exploring the interplay between rectilinear form and more expressive brushstrokes, charged colour and visceral mark-making. But, whatever the mode of the individual work, his paintings all engage with otherwise neglected processes of perception.

’Painting is neither a particular method, nor a particular set of techniques’, says Malone. ‘It is not about any one thing, nor is there any one subject either more or less suitable to it. It is possible that painting is all or any of the things that at one time or another have been claimed for it: enlightening, inspiring, consoling and so on. It is also possible that it is none of these things. Whatever its purpose or significance, for me it is, above all else, a mode of enquiry, a way of asking questions: about what it is to see and what there is to be seen.‘

Malone’s more specific interest lies in the very particular relationship between the so-called pictorial space of the painting and the real space in which the painted object finds its ‘home’. ‘In trying to answer the questions this interest raises’, says Malone, ‘I am committed to using such forms and techniques as present themselves and being open to all possibilities.’

Apart from an A-level art course at school from 1955-57 and an experimental course at the Working Men’s College in London in 1990-91, Malone is entirely self-taught. He has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows across the UK and has paintings in private collections internationally.