Detail: Symphony in Red I

The West Australian

Arts Today
Wednesday August 11 1999
"At the Gadfly Gallery, Nedlands is Floating World, an exhibition of Ralph Stanton's brightly-coloured, breezy abstract paintings, many of which are evidence of his proficient paint handling.

"These I can understand. They're the sort of paintings that (the late) broodingly heroic, American painter Mark Rothko might have done if he had lightened up, taken holidays on the Gold coast and spent his evenings drinking strawberry daiquiri with Ken Done, rather than worrying about "the void" and all that heavy stuff.

Floating World drifts on until August 22."

Robert Cook

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Art Seen In Western Australia

May 2006
"Ralph Stanton's canvases also celebrate paint. He lays down multiple layers of pigment to create rich textures that seem to explore the physicality of the medium. His works call to the viewer from a distance while close inspection rewards us with glimpses of some underlying activity. The texture and hints of other colours suggest something else lay just beneath the surface, the memory of another idea perhaps. The startling red of Magenta Sunset demands attention while the churning, almost diagonal sense of movement of the surface mesmerizes. The overall power is checked by one small vertical and one horizontal slash of 'multi-coloured' white. These marks provide handles we can cling to as we continue to search deep into the painting and discover remnants of other ideas. But are they the artist's or our own?

"Stanton constructs with the paint; the viscosity of the medium is worked as are colour combinations. It is the process of painting, the layering of colour and knowing when to stop, that seems to appeal to the artist. These exhibits invite tactile inspection but when we move closer we don't touch, instead we seem to fall into infinity."

Judith McGrath