Homage to those green things where I found you
‘Painting for Hélion is like a revolving door through which life comes and goes in both directions. A revolving door through which people and things undergo a startling, Clark Kent-like transformation… ‘*
Jamie Limond and Samuel O’Donnell shared a studio for many years. They recently set up a YouTube channel (Painting Nerds) for a series of video essays on painting. A recurring theme across their videos is the relationship between art and life.
Monochrome or almost-monochrome paintings are highly artificial in some ways. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re totally divorced from lived experience. Or that they can’t throw a different ‘colour’ on it.
*A Comedy of Rectangles: Jean Hélion and ‘meta’ painting, Painting Nerds 2022.
Jamie Limond (b.1993) currently lives and works in Amsterdam. Recent shows include Moderato Cantible (Stoppenbach & Delestre, London 2022) and a mean idea to call my own… (Pleinkamer, Amsterdam, 2021). He has also written on art for Frieze, The Herald, Burlington Contemporary, The Drouth, a-n The Artists Information Company, and MAP Magazine.
Samuel O’Donnell (b.1992) lives and works in Glasgow. Recent shows include From the Big Splash to the Last Splash (Terrace Gallery, London 2023) and he was shortlisted for the Contemporary British Painting Prize (Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield & Thames-side Gallery, London 2022). He completed a residency at Dumfries House with the Royal Drawing School in 2021.