Philip Lindsey divides his creative output into two bodies of work. One, a formalist language of expressive, gestural abstraction dating to his earliest explorations as a painter. The other, a journey into personal narrative through metaphor and allegory that began with the birth of his daughter, 15 years ago.

The purity of abstraction, and eloquence of poetics developed into a vast language derived from a vocabulary of limitations. Series evolved as the language grew, with materials informing process and decisions concerning form, space, scale and complexity. Stasis, dynamics, structure, and tension located the core of these investigations.

Narrative grew out of necessity, and a new language emerged as a new purpose as a father was revealed. Single-scene and multi-episodic formats combine direct and indirect painting processes, to explore density and complexity within relationships through metaphorical themes. Rebecca Massie Lane, Director of the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, said this about Lindsey in an exhibition catalog “…Lindsey’s paintings have to do with identity, relationships, and the meaning of art as an allegory for life. In the end, what is apparent is the artist’s honesty, his respect for his artistic precedents, his love for family and his devotion to painting.”