Although Roy Colmer was well known for his photographic work, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s he produced a series of paintings on canvas. Currently on display at Lisson Gallery, this work was created by using tape to make bright horizontal bands of color, that where then painted over using a spray gun.

Roy Colmer, “Untitled #57”, 1970
Picture courtesy of Lisson Gallery

The practice of spraying a mist of paint applied a gradient of opacities over the hard-edge parallel lines. The resulting optical quality of the work relates to Colmer’s use of – what he referred to as –  “feedback” in his film and video work. These techniques seem to bend and distort the canvas plane altering the nature of the parallel line.

Roy Colmer, “Untitled #133”, 1971
Picture courtesy of Lisson Gallery

Susan Happersett