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Helen Lindon, Folkestone, 2017

Helen Lindon’s paintings can breath in here in this big empty shop space, her relatively big paintings afforded lots of space so they can talk to each other without ever getting in the way of each other.  An almost perfectly hung show in just the right space. There’s something special about a bold painting hanging in space on a white wall, a painting just hanging there inviting you to look at it. There’s something about paint on a canvas, about a bold painting and the joy of texture, colour, the joy of paint that lifts a good painting up above everything else – a good painting touches something that an installation, a print, a sculpture or a piece of performance art jsut can’t, I love this show.  I can’t tell you why I love this show, I don’t want to even try to tell you why I love this show, I don’t want to take away the pleasure of the encounter by over-analysing that pleasure – it really is about a gut reaction, a buzz,  a delightful glow – of course these paintings aren’t mere decoration hanging walls and yes there is space for a more considered critical analysis of what they are, these are challenging pieces, exciting pieces, I like it in here in all the space, the white walls are just right, the way the colours talk to each other within the paintings and across the room is just right – structure holding colour, containing the harmony, the clever simplicity, articulate works, and right now, in terms of words on this page, less is more, do love the humanity of a brush stroke, do love this show, really don’t want to spoil it by trying to explain why right now.

Helen Lindon‘s show is in the big empty shop at 27 Guildhall Street, as part of the Folkestone Fringe, until October 8th.  The third of the openings tonight is the Gary Clough show back down the hill on the other side of the Creative Quarter.

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SEAN WORRALL
THE ORGAN

organthing.com

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