‘When studying colour in nature and watching how it splits, bounces, reflects and absorbs, I ask myself, “How much am I not seeing?”’

Beginning with colour studies and notes made in the landscape Sorrell then works in the studio to distill his perceptions into abstract compositions. He develops pictorial structures that maximise the dynamic interplay of colour and which dramatise the relationship of motif and ground.

His paintings are not presentations but rather, using subtle shifts and transitions of tone and colour, Sorrell seeks to create a viewing experience analogous to that experienced before nature. His abstract images are therefore not merely an objective record but an emotional response that also reflects the fluid dynamism of the experience of looking.

While his paintings encapsulate a highly personal, temporal perception of space, their titles take the viewer back to the point of inspiration. Titles such as Field, Dusk or Late Summer reference a location or season, thus tracing aspects of Sorrell’s inspiration. For Sorrell it is important that his work is connected to the natural world and not seen in isolation. However, as Sorrell says, ‘the paintings can be read on different levels. The colours and forms begin to build on my sense of the connectedness of space through light.’ Through this process, he says, ‘all the parts of the painting take on their own meaning and can act independently’.