Mandy Rodger

My paintings begin with the actions of mixing the paint, loading the paintbrush and tracing its marks across the canvas.  I aspire to generate dynamic gestures immersing the viewer in the motion and fluidity of the brush strokes.  Amidst the movement and sense of impermanence there is a promise of connection and calm. Previously I practised as a lawyer until I began studying painting and drawing in 2014.  I see my paintings as a visual of the internal discourse between the intuitive and the analytical mind.  

Do you have a favourite colour?

So difficult to chose but I do love magenta - so bold and it flows and mixes so well & it’s fun to wear!  It is difficult to specify one colour. Working monochromatic is very challenging.  The interplay and relationship between colours (their hues, tones and saturation) are fundamental in my work.  Much experimenting and play with colour goes into my compositions.  

How do you take your coffee?
Long black.  Delicious also over ice.  Essential cooling.

Is there something you can’t live without in your studio?
My big, well-loved brush found by one of my lovely studio mates, Robyn Gavaghan, in a London market.  The place Robyn found it also holds special significance having lived for almost a decade in London and very regularly frequenting Portobello Road.

Who is your favourite artist of all time + now? Why? 
Mark Rothko and his colour field paintings, Hilma Af Klint who believed her art flowed through her unmediated by ego, Donald Martiny and his reverence to the gestural form in itself, Liliane Toasko with her unabashed use of colour and interest in sleep, dreams and the unconscious, Ildiko Kovacs free and bold gestures created with rollers on ply, Gretchen Albrecht with her colour, wide brush strokes and geometry, Otto Baum with his Otto tools…..

5 words that explain your art
Gesture, connection, continuity, colour,beyond