Maggie Royle

Artist statement

I make paintings on paper, canvas and wood which take imagery from art historical and contemporary sources; alongside these I make abstract paintings.

My recent paintings ('Los azulejos' series and 'We may not be here tomorrow' series) make reference to Mexican sources, for example, photographs taken in Guadalajara.

‘Los azulejos – a tale that can’t be told’

September 2010: M moves to Mexico. I want to make work which articulates my response, but it seems just out of my grasp. In my understanding of the situation there is a blurring between the real and the imagined; between daytime and nocturnal thoughts and between past, present and future events.

The stories in the news are mainly negative ; I become fascinated (attracted/ repulsed) by these places; searching out a version of reality from the virtual safety of Google street view, looking for the surprise of beauty, the strange or the sinister, screened through the veneer of the banal.

The use of pattern and decoration become a way of confronting, organising and analysing my concerns while intuition and telepathy play key roles in the choice and treatment of the subject.