In Jon Doran’s paintings, the idea of attempting to find a sense of certainty is articulated through immersion in forests, the archetypal environment for both disorientation and discovery. Doran carries a sense of ambiguity right through to his use of the paint, which is fragmented like sunlight broken up by the forest canopy. Scenes are suggested and distorted, making his works hover between the certainty of a representation and the fluidity of paintmarks on panel. It is a way of using painting as a kind of quest in itself, exploring an in-between space where things are lost, found, and held onto.
