The thread that runs through this exhibition is the search for stillness. Years ago when I began to find a way of painting people in quite a personal way I recall feeling that what was missing was a sense of place, somewhere for these characters to inhabit. Over the years I have built up in my paintings an environment that can suggest a story and create an atmosphere. Having been brought up around the beaches of East Lothian and my family home being next to the Racecourse, this seemed a good place to start. With the exception of the harbour and tenement paintings, my main preoccupation has been with people and the spaces they occupy. And what arose naturally was the composition and the sense of stillness in these works. It was natural that different places would become ideal to populate - places that would create a particular atmosphere and endless possibilities of human relationships and little dramas. Hence the cafes, the bars, the train stations and latterly the theatres. In all of these figurative works I of course owe a debt to the artists I admire and who have had a profound effect on me: Seurat, Vermeer and Hopper. By contrast, the harbour paintings are devoid of people, and the focus is on the boats, the masts, and the water. It is the harbour as its own character, and with its own personality, that is the focus here. Although my earlier harbour paintings did have a few people dotted about, it gradually occurred to me that the viewer of the painting should be the only human presence in these works. The viewer alone should be there to watch the reflections on the water and to witness the stillness of the place.
STEPHEN MANGAN
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