Mark Hatfield

Hatfield's work has grown out of the practice of figurative painting. He has spent numerous years with human figurative and representational painting. As Hatfield began to evolve as an artist, what seemed to come through most was his fluid abie of what he saw before him. Hatfield began developing form and composition intuitively. The greatest joy for him began to be brought forth by the gesture. From this gesture came the truest form of expression. It became the preferred practice rather than a novelty in self descovery.
Equipped with this new language, Hatfield began using elements of his old visual reality, using what he knew or was comfortable with and altering these images into non-objective works. He bought an old Polaroid land camera, took photographs and tore them into pieces and reorganized them as starting points for paintings. Finally, he threw away all direct imagery and bagan working from the memory of experience of his environment. Hatfield found this way of working to prove more direct and it allows the paintings to develop in a more natural way.
Hatfield's purpose in painting is to capture the essence of his individual experience and create a link to others around him. It is a way of relating ideas, feeling; seizing a moment of rapture and expressing it through visual language for the viewer. His desire is to make a connection with the viewer on a lovel that is pointed towards the universal. The paintings can be summed up as temporary manifestations of a continuing entity.