“On the other side of the North Pacific looking out to the port of Palm Beach Australia from the dock through weather and wind, Wayne has tried to paint every version and shape of spray and white water, in the frothy thick of it and in the distance too, painted on the wood of the sign painter - a durable and sturdy surface that receives the physical nature of Wayne’s free and succinct hand. The translation of what is seen and what it becomes is pure painting, direct, the original sin.”
Julian Schnabel HIS BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER MARITIME SEASCAPES The Arts Centre at Duck Creek East Hampton, New York May 11, 2021
“Wayne Magrin’s large scale representations of seafaring culture are painted in a style that combines the drama and energy of Marsden Hartley’s seascapes, with the flattened depth of field and minimal compositions employed by Milton Avery, and the emotional impact of Australian painter Sidney Nolan. “What is it about seascapes that pulls people in? When I was a child I used to draw boats over and over. Wayne’s paintings brought back the kid looking through a telescope searching for boats down by the water. The idea of it, trying to comprehend the sea with an accumulation of marks, light bouncing around, figuring out the shadows, the physical quality of the paintings painted on wood, like a sign painter, filling in the space of the memory and the desire to be part of the water. To be in it. I don’t understand it but I am drawn in. It is something like falling out of a tree when we are dreaming. They say it comes from our ancestors who used to live in trees.”
Charles Manion, Painter and Artist Montauk New York USA
HIS BROTHER FROM ANOTHER MOTHER - MARITIME SEASCAPES
The Arts Centre at Duck Creek East Hampton, New York August 2021
Two years ago I was staying at a friend’s house near the water in Palm Beach, Australia. There was a large room with many large works of Australian painters, and I noticed one small painting about 4 by 3 inches, of a sail. It could have been of anything. The painted marks flew over the tiny surface with great gesture and natural ease. I asked who painted this and where was the artist. “Up the block, he has a bacon and eggs breakfast spot on the beach.” “Can we see him?”
“Wayne was painting in a small widow's walk on the top of his house, and when I visited him the friend who had brought me there volunteered that Wayne had a story to go with each painting. I said “Let me look at the painting. I don't need to hear the story first.” I did. And loved the small paintings that he had made in his tower. And after looking, I read the stories. And the stories were good. Wayne is a narrative painter – inhabiting and traveling along in his imagination. The narration is a source of life, life at sea, imagery, content and the joy and discovery of the painted world.”
Julian Schnabel The Far Away and the Familiar (Narrative Paintings of Surfers, Sailors and Bushrangers) IBID Gallery Los Angeles California USA 2018
“Wayne Magrin: Seventy-one percent of the earth is covered by water. Wayne is going to paint all of it. You've had to have been out there in the water to paint the sea like that.Ingrained in seafaring Wayne, imagined stories, remembered stories of being in the boat. He is the mountain, the sky, God's painted hand”.
Julian Schnabel. UNKNOWN - THE MAGNIFICENT 10 exhibition catalogue, The Ludwig Museum of Koblenz Germany, 2016.