In the quietness of the studio Joe Cheetham often finds himslef reflecting on ideas of longing. His practice is motivated by the melancholy of this pursuit; desirous in remembrance of place, person, moment. The imagined figures he paints maintain a physical and temporal ambiguity that enables a freedom of movement between these external and internal worlds. Crucially, it is this point of transition that Cheetham wishes to occupy, where one can see simultaneously the futility and the fruitfulness of this endeavour. That which is, and was, and will. To find beauty in this dichotomy of human experience and fortify myself for this Sisyphean task.
In this constant search for a point of tension within his paintings, compositional elements that verge on romanticism are curtailed through simplification and deliberate restraint; facial features - swollen, enlarged and saturated as if at breaking point - somehow remain steadfastly resistant to betraying defined emotion. Indeed, the true power of these paintings is in the preservative nature of the medium itself: oil paint elongates and suspends moments that could so easily be lost; it enables one to attempt to capture this ambiguous, fraught in-between. If Cheetham's paintings achieve a physical response, it is through subtle ambiguity not because it is painted plain. We feel these paintings beyond the emotions they portray.
Engaging directly with the historical weight of portraiture, his figures look out of the painted
surface acknowledging the presence of someone else in the room - we are there and we are part of the work’s unfurling. Yet this relationship is never in balance - heads turn at an angle as if only momentarily attentive to our presence, caught between acknowledgement and dismissal. Both painted figure and viewer oscillate between vulnerability and strength, at once consumed by the moment and our gaze whilst all together resistant to this predicament.