Luke Knight seeks to capture moments glimpsed. His canvases are charged with motion, as he lingers on transitionary memories: a sunset flashing through surf, a verdant landscape slipping by a car window. A keen surfer, Knight spends much of his time observing light and ocean. Whilst floating on the swell, waiting for the next wave, he is exposed to vacillation. It is not often that we sit in one place and watch the light change, but this is a by-product of surfing. Knight takes notice of the sea and tide, observing alterations on an hourly, daily, and seasonal basis. Visiting the same beaches throughout the year, he will pay attention to the movement of sandbanks due to winter storms, the gradual warming of the water in April, the dramatic light-shows of October sunrises and sunsets.  

Knight enjoys the conversation between memory and perception. When we remember, we recall a memory of the memory, rather than the original event. In this way, although his paintings may start off in response to a specific photograph he has taken of sea or sky, it will invariably develop its own visual language, evolving over time to become something entirely its own. His use of colour also references ideas of perception. Instead of using traditional greens and blues informed by our own schemas of understanding, Knight pays attention to the effects of light on colour. He is often inspired by dawn and dusk where the level of the light creates the most beautiful spectrum of hues: coral pinks, soft lilacs, glowing oranges.  

The painting develops through an immediate conversation with the materials. Knight enjoys building up a surface with aggregates such as marble dust, contrasting texture with pared back areas. His consideration of balance creates work with seductive atmospheric perspective. The paintings become as much about change as the landscape itself, as they too evolve over time. They grow and erode; they swell and are excavated; the tides of washes and glazes come in and out over them. There is a contrast between the bulbous build-up of the paint, noticed on the edges of his pieces, and the seamless, almost photographic blur of his surfaces. The slickness seduces the viewer and, on closer inspection, an entirely different painting reveals itself: one of industry and journey, where the viewer glimpses the paintings sedimentary history.   

For more information: https://www.lukeknightpaintings.com