Cynthia Chapman`s “Target Practice” painting of 2022, she uses differently-sized strokes of colour which vibrate in their relationship with each other – blue against white, red against blue, and orange against green, ranging from lighter colours at upper left to darker colours at lower right so that the colours resonate and burst in a showery path of surging movement, as Chapman knew when she titled the work. The result is colour magic: the colours seem like chords as though taking part in a thrilling piece of music. But this is not all that is going on in her work. Everywhere in this show, her paintings are dynamic variations on a theme of interwoven colour and vibrancy: look at “Mower” for instance, with its back-and-forth movement. Visually arresting, with its colours of green, yellow, white and red, it commands attention, as all her works do, be they large or small, from their compelling sense of activity, of animation which varies with each of her subjects.
 

When Chapman paints she works spontaneously. One touch of the canvas leads to another, perpetuating itself. Each colour supports the next. Some of her paintings are a journey to themselves. They are harder to do, yet satisfying when they are finished. She can never tell what the process is going to result in – sometimes, it`s the smaller works which are gems in the end. When the process is over, hopefully, she`s done a home run. Her intention is to create the pure presence of colour – and of course that is what she does.

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Joan Murray, 2022, Art Historian, Author, Curator