Gillian Ayres OBE

As with most of Ayres’s work, the title Weddell was added once the painting was finished. It may derive from the sea of the same name, as the painting invokes an impression of the power and vastness of nature. Weddell is built up with heavily textured layers of paint, although the final layer appears thinly applied. Here Ayres presents paint as both a material act and a substance.