We went to see Charles Forsberg's exhibition of paintings today at the InterUrban art gallery. Large rectanglar canvases, oils worked in intuitive experimental landscapes of colour. I work with Charles at the VAG, he has informed ideas about the act of painting, and he references Gordon Smith. His work certainly reminds me of Jack Shadbolt, the way he shapes and mixes his colours, but without the representation.

Interestingly, Charles paints with his hands. He has chosen to eschew the brush, to free himself from its personality. He aspires to respond to the work as he goes along, mixing his colours directly on the canvas. The painting itself informs the process. And much is left to chance: by applying a layer of rabbit skin glue to before painting, he has prepared the canvas for his final manipulation. He tightens the canvas, and it cracks the paint. So it is really about experimentation, the paint, and the viewer is free to form their own associations with the work. They remain untitled, and they are not for sale. Charles does not want to be owned by a gallery, he does not want the concept of what sold to inform his painting, his exploration.