Last November we interviewed Gav Barbey about his new book Little Seed America. Now Gav is busy creating a series of 12 paintings, a commission from a boutique Sydney hotel. The series he is developing are Icework paintings – Slurpee-inspired blasts of colour. Gav struck upon this idea as he watched amazing patterns emerge and disappear when two long-forgotten frozen Slurpees were rediscovered in his freezer, one red and one blue, he laid them on a canvas to melt together. The happy accident led to the series Iceworks – a collection of paintings that involves the freezing of paints, dyes and pigments in water. The frozen candy-like ice blocks are then arranged onto canvas, the pigments swirl and run as the ice cubes melt, leaving a burst of colour in their wake. In the example above 64 ice cubes were placed on a one metre square canvas.
bakersmith 
My Iceworks practice have taken me on a discovery, initially an attempt to pour a water mark, a follow-on to my figurative continual line drawings has become a fascination with the semi-organic flow, the movement, the patterns and designs that appear, then transform into another constant movement, like a musical score they contain singular notes that sit together within a symphony of colour and movement. It has been 12 years now, they have taken me across the seas and mostly been shared and collaborated with, whether that has been friends, musicians, filmmakers within my studio; or the live audiences, who for me are often the Artist while I observe them.
The Iceworks are a meandering, a continual exploration into the poetry of transformation, for me they are beautiful – a meditation, an extension on the continual scribble drawings, figurative pieces that ask of me ‘collaboration’
Thank you
Gav
To view video’s and stills of both live works and gallery works please click on the link below
http://www.gavbarbey.com/iceworks/iceworks.html