Will Copley is a Fine Art graduate from Newcastle University, specialising in painting and sculpture. After graduating in June 2022, he became an artist in residence for VARC at Highgreen. Now based in Newcastle, he is currently Artist in Residence for Josephine Butler College, Durham University. Copley’s work explores the relationship between different instances of colour; material colour, such as pigment and immaterial colour, such as LEDs.
Colour being a brain-based phenomena, it is not something we are able to touch. Despite this, some colours can feel so tangible when compared to others. Watching the sun rise feels very different to looking at a painting of the same subject. Copley’s Light Paintings explore the space between material and immaterial instances of colour and the areas that exist between what we feel when we experience light, and what we think when we see material representations of it. By using both immaterial and material instances of the phenomena within his works, he blurs the boundaries between what is painted and what is omitted. Copley’s experimental paintings draw on the multifaceted nature of the colour, taking inspiration from colour theory, art history and colour science.
