“… to play without a goal, aimlessly. I love the idea of reciprocity and philanthropy; taking and giving back”
Patrick Semple is a Los Angeles-based abstract painter who draws inspiration from environmental elements.
During his formative undergrad years at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, Semple was trained in observational and representational work dealing with the figure or still life objects.
As a perfectionist, Patrick Semple would often become frustrated if the figures weren’t exactly right, making it an arduous task to draw and paint from observation as he realized that his epitome deeply craved play without a goal, aimlessly creating for the sake of finding beauty in the materiality of paint and physical texture.
For a time, he wanted to create small paintings of dahlias in a vase to give to his loved ones. As he paints the still life in various iterations very quickly and started to get into a rhythm of creating these fast paintings, he wondered if he even needed to paint the flowers from observation. He entertained the idea that the forms ingrained in his anima can be the basis of a possible abstract painting.
After seeing an exhibit at LACMA featuring some paintings by the likes of Frankenthaler and Diebenkorn, he began to consider ideas of branching into the world of abstraction.
Extracting inspiration from environmental elements, Patrick Semple plays with chance and accidents as a conveyance for his interior mind to incarnate onto the exterior world using the materiality of newsprint, canvas scraps, other fabrics, paints, and mediums to bring forth joy and value. A few Artists that he draws inspiration from are Antoni Tapies, Jorge Galino, and Julian Schnabel.
Interested in the idea of Palimpsest, in which something is reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form, Semple builds up the surface using scrap material, refusing for things to go to waste.
Music has become a significant influence on his creative practice. Many of his paintings are based on songs, allowing them to impact his decision-making. Large swaths of color, texture, and gestural movements derived from everyday life and unexplained automatic memories present during his practice.
(Detail of a larger painting)
Detail of It She She It, 36” x 40” oil and acrylic on canvas
Inspired by time spent outdoors, exploring the city, wilderness, desert areas on foot, and biking by the beach, Semple’s process remains fluid and spontaneous, mimicking the emotional experience of being one with external forces. He moves back and forth from altered states of consciousness and pragmatic considerations of painting as he creates.
As he continues to discover spaces for his paintings and create readily recognizable and unique bodies of work intrinsically rife with emotional power, the work provides deep aesthetic pleasure, producing visually unexpected and surprising outcomes.