Whether conceptually motivated or intuitively created, the process of painting has been a main attribute in art for sometime now. Controlling the surface of a canvas is at the root of most contemporary painting. Vancouver native Jeff Depner's work creates avenues for visual discovery through a process based aesthetic. Layers upon layers of paint each relating to the next. Masking some, if not all, of the past creates a visual history within. The work ebbs and flows between graphic qualities and thick painterly styles with muted but contemporary feeling colors. The constant process of ‘improvised moves' allows some of the work to be based in grid like structures. It allows some of the smaller paintings a chance for inquiry in constructive qualities and aspects of painting, inserting his work into the long history of painting.

I usually have a general idea of what I want to do going into a painting, but it's usually a series of improvised moves piled on top of each other until something starts to makes sense. There's a lot of building up and tearing down going on, it's a slow process.

Deciding what stays and what gets painted over is a balancing act, long periods of looking followed by painting things in and out, and moving things around on the canvas. Not much escapes being painted out at some point.

It's tricky, usually when I can't think of anything else to do to it.

They are of equal importance, I try to have composition and materiality operating on the same level so the pieces exert themselves on a physical level.

The layers aren't used as a spatial device necessarily, more of a way of indicating history.

Yes and no. The photographs don't relate directly to the paintings, but things filter through back and forth. It's all just a way of seeing.

I wouldn't necessarily agree with that, but the smaller works are a chance to experiment with things a bit more.

I'm looking more for a gut reaction.

The colours are not chosen for any conceptual reasons, they are usually intuitive and are meant to elicit an emotional response from the viewer. I try to let aesthetics occur as a byproduct of the problem solving that goes on while making a painting, although it's easier said than done.

Make paintings I'm happy with. Contribute in some way to the discourse of painting.

A discourse with the history of not just abstract, but all painting. Letting aspects of past vocabularies seep into the work and then trying to build and distort that language allows me to engage with works of the past while trying to figure out new possibilities for painting.

Philip Guston, Ron Gorchov, Frank Stella, Robert Ryman, Richard Diebenkorn, Willem De Kooning, Imi Knoebel, Blinky Palermo, Picasso, Bonnard, Brice Marden, Richard Tuttle, Jim Lee, Jonathan Lasker, Peter Halley, Arshille Gorky. http://jeffdepner.com/