Thomas Lisle

United Kingdom

Thomas Lisle is a British artist based in London. He started making glitch videos in the style of paintings in the early 1980s and pioneered the genre. Recently, Thomas’s works have been related to painting and the idea of progressing paintings in the digital age, time-based paintings and painting in 3D. He has had several solo exhibitions, mostly in London, and some of his works are featured in the collections of the Tate Modern and Museum of Modern Art. 

Thomas’s work combines abstract forms, figurative, simulated liquids, simulated brush strokes, and complex programmed events. His work responds to colour, form and motion in ways only possible with 3D animation and simulation techniques to make dynamic, dramatic and thought-provoking art. He draws inspiration from nature, psychology, comparative philosophy and the past and present history of painting.


Thomas_Lisle_3D.jpg

Flurry

"A small swirling mass of snow or leaves, moved by something like a sudden gust of wind." 

 

Snow is white; when it falls and settles, it's very white, and this is because light is scattered and bounces off the ice crystals in the snow. It's a dramatic change to the landscape, making everything look very different. The very whiteness of the snow makes it seem very pure. There is something calming and relaxing about seeing snow crumble and fall; it's also a little mesmerising. 

 

The snow forms in this artwork were created by painting curving and flowing shapes in 3D and then building invisible shapes which are slowly shifting, a bit like leaves or boughs bending under the weight of the snow, to allow the snow to fall, to make an ever-shifting and changing background to the 3D paintings. The red paint painting elements are also made by physically painting with a tablet pen in 3D.

 

In contrast to the snow the paintings are in zero gravity and have virtual forces pushing the liquid to break apart and form globs of paint. So it's the paint that is in a "flurry" rather than the snow. The paintings have a flowing form, which has something in common with Japanese and Chinese calligraphy, but they also have a lot in common with 20th and 21st-century painting and the brushwork of someone like De Kooning. 

 

The paint and the snow are both breaking apart, but in this artwork, breaking apart means forming new forms, which in themselves are more interesting and lead to a more dynamic and visually interesting composition and movement. 

 

Like Japanese, Korean, and Chinese woodblock prints, these artworks are made with layers of ideas, form, movement, and colour; the clear and concise differences between the layers are so interesting.

technique

3d

format

portrait

duration

01:00

year

2024

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