Artists are able to explain their theories of art in relation to how their beliefs, motives and ideas are expressed in their art practice. This enables them to tune into their spirituality and express these ideals in their own work. .
Two such artists are Peter Booth with his bleak and nightmarish images and Tracey Emin as she relates her work to her personal experiences and ideas on life. .
English - born Peter Booth was originally known for his black minimal "doorway" paintings of 1970 - 1974. But by 1977,he had given up his previous style to record the world of his dreams and nightmares in a series of apocalyptic and visionary landscapes. Since then his work has changed dramatically moving through different phases, and constantly challenging both himself and the audience with occasional images of the weird and shocking.
His beliefs and ideas are explored through his art practice as many of his ideas come to Booth in the form of dreams, experiences through out life, stories and novels. His dreams are bleak and explore aspects of fantasy, which to him appear in a spiritual context. These ideas are then presented in the form of rough sketches, drawings and paintings. .
His nightmarish compositions that appear in his work from 1977 onwards, deal with his expression of horror at his belief on the human races ability to live in piece. Most of his "horrific" pieces deal with a composition of corruption and anarchy. While some are based on the climatic changes which Booth claims "affect him." This is reflected as he explains, "sometimes the pictures are very still, or they"re agitated, it depends on the weather.".
Booth's painting technique makes it possible to maintain its power in his works as he thickly applies the paint in a way that makes it appear almost "edible." Booth is able to build up his paint surface, incredibly richly empowering both the paint and his images accordingly.
His beliefs and spiritual challenges are shown in his painting titled, "Painting 1978.
