Stephen Snoddy

Snoddy wants viewers to look at the relationships between his works, and how he carries lines and formats from one picture over to another. He sometimes regards two consecutive paintings as a diptych, with left and right-hand panels forming parts of a composite whole. There is an obsessive commitment to playing out endless permutations of specific forms and he goes along with an ontological methodology.

The work becomes defined by its geometries, serial approach and limitless variations. He always starts by picking up on elements from a previous painting. Then he constructs a multi lined grid, and the interjection of these lines helps him to arrive at a new work. While this sounds methodical, intuition plays its part and is revealed in the pentimenti inherent in the act of painting. He often regards it as a cousin of the earlier painting – related, yet not too closely. Snoddy likens the whole activity of making art to building a family. But he is even more convinced that structure is the absolute key to a fully considered and contemplative painting.

He invites us to think about process, and work out for ourselves how the images have been arrived at.Stephen's works are preserved in a wide range of collections, from the Museo Roberto Polo in Toledo to the Yantai Art Museum and Yantai Art and Craft Museum, China.