Arryn Snowball

A lot of artists who set up lives abroad have packed up shop and returned to Australia. It’s sort of a line in the sand moment for a lot of people. How are you going?

It’s tough, we are all is swimming in uncertainty at the moment. I’m homesick but stuck here, visa worries, canceled exhibitions, but I’m healthy and painting and doing okay. And I just had a big show here in Berlin. It was a challenge to make it happen with COVID, but friends put in a lot of work, and made it something very special.

I’m looking at a series of large pink canvasses with dark triangular grid painting over the top. Tell me about this motif. How did these paintings emerge?

I want these paintings to act like nets for light and space, and (2018). I’ve always chased movement in painting, steam from the kettle, sheets in the wind. A grid doesn’t really move. It’s still, but it acts like an anchor for movement, it collects imperfections. These break the grid and make rhythms. Then you get depth and space too. The grid in these paintings is measured by eye and allows the awkwardness of my hand to add another rhythm.