Michael Whetman’s long interest in colour, surface and visual perception led him to make images intended to raise other people’s interest.  It has led him to paint, to study painting at Leeds College of Art–more generally, to produce surfaces whose colour, scale and texture raise perceptual questions. His recent works, Colour Constructions, have come off the wall, out of the gallery, and into a field, garden or orchard. They are not “sculpted” (“subtracted”), but constructed drawings or paintings.

Flexible and responsive to constant changes in ambient light and air, the work is closely related to its environment. But the intention is not to imitate natural forms (which cannot be improved). The new structures are intended to complement the natural ones, even to move in a similar way, but still to be different enough to call the viewer’s attention to the way trees, etc., do move. The choice of man-made materials is deliberate. The work is made from various plastics, tubes and cable-ties — in short, mixed media. But the crucial materials are glass fibre tubes and rods, reinforced with polyester fibre (a kind of artificial bamboo) and glass fibre woven tape/matting. The tape provides a very good base for holding pigment, and can be rolled or folded. The surface colour is a high quality acrylic pigment, with excellent permanence, protected by a clear acrylic varnish which also enhances the colour.

Most of the Constructions are either poles arranged in small, regular groups, or single vertical structures. The groups of poles/rods, including Poles Apart, Polar Correspondence, or Tripolarities, use colour to pick up elements of the surroundings. As everything moves, the relationships between the work and the background change constantly. The groups also create shifting virtual colour surfaces and spatial anomalies, surprises and ironies. The works whose titles suggest botanical species, such as Neophytes or Nannorrhops, have distinct parts that respond variously to changes in light and wind. In addition to their dialogue with the environment, these structures have an internal play of light, shadow and colour.