Paul Senyol: A Garden in March

Meet Paul Senyol, a local abstract painter who reflects the details of everyday life, paired down to an empathy with colour, line and form. Now you can catch some of Paul’s latest work, ‘A Garden in March’, as an online feature with Salon Ninety One Contemporary, Cape Town, which opened on 22 March 2022.

Paul’s work is a crafted response to his wanderings through various spaces. The colours and textures of urban and natural environments inform his spontaneous practice in the studio where every material he uses – acrylics, pastels, ink, pencils and spray paint – is chosen for the particular mark it can contribute to a finished composition. Paul has been studying art and the mark since his fascination with skateboarding magazines as a teenager in Cape Town. Skateboarding emerged as a gateway to early creative works on the street and remains an important part of jis experience of urban spaces. He makes regular visits to the public library to source graphics, album covers, magazine layouts and illustrations. Paul’s unique visual language is founded on the inevitable change and flux in environments. His works are a testament to the translation of experiences into form.

A Garden in March

‘This body of works spans the latter part of 2021, and the early part of 2022. Without a defined deadline looming for the first part of the year, I have felt the freedom to experiment and paint slowly; the element of time is one which I have drawn on extensively in the creation of these pieces. Slowing down, observing and looking more, and painting less. Less becoming more. Many of these works stem from a single collage and drawing, and a handful of reference images. The resulting works have been an experiment in extraction and simplicity; a distillation of thoughts and self-reflection on canvas in mixed media. As always, my work has found its cue from the everyday hustle and bustle of the city, as well as finding peace and solitude on the outskirts of our city; in the hills, valleys, rivers, and forests. These pieces resonate with the duality of city and nature, organic and geometric, and the expression of inner thought as mark.’

If you would like to reserve or purchase a piece, please get in touch with the Salon Ninety One team directly via email (enquiries@salon91.co.za) or via landline 021 424-6930.