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 