Ross Sinclair is better known for his large-scale installations than for his painting. He would be the first to admit that he is not attempting to create a masterpiece in oils in the old tradition. However, he is determined in this exhibition to investigate the possibilities of how paint can be used by a contemporary artist who may use many materials at different times, rather than follow a long apprenticeship to just one medium.

The Real Life Painting Show is characterised on every level by a sense of experiment. One starting point for the work lies in the frustration that many successful artists experience today: working on large installations or exhibitions with little time, issues arise that can only be dealt with quickly before moving on. Sinclair, for instance, felt that when working on his installations he would face choices in terms of combining colours, often on a large scale. The implications of these colour combinations, though, was always something that there was never enough time to address. The Real Life Painting Show is a deliberate attempt to examine those issues and explore their consequences. Describing this process in his own words he says, ‘I’m taking a few steps back, holding a mirror up to my practice, pulling it apart, asking what the building blocks of it are, the pieces of the jigsaw, what are the essential elements?’