Private Project

Flow: A film about painting

“Flow” is an exploration of paint, space and sound combining physical performance, life painting, music and film.

Artist Alan McGowan, model Topaz Pauls and musicians Tim Vincent Smith and Matt Wright collaborate to produce a changing, shifting, developing scene recorded in paint. In this immersive improvisation what emerges is unique, unpredictable; a result of the ephemeral leaving its trace.

Alan McGowan is a prize winning figurative artist whose work has featured in the Scottish Portrait Awards, SKY Portrait Artist, BP Portrait Awards, the Threadneedle Figurative Art Prize and many other exhibitions of contemporary figure painting.

First performed and recorded at the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

  • Alan McGowan
    Director
  • Alan McGowan
    Key Cast
    "Artist"
  • Topaz Pauls
    Key Cast
    "Model"
  • Tim Vincent-Smith
    Key Cast
    "Musician"
  • Matthew Wright
    Key Cast
    "Musician"
  • Lucas Chih Peng Kao
    Camera
  • Alan McGowan
    Editing
  • Tim Vincent Smith
    Original Music
  • Matthew Wright
    Original Music
  • Alan McGowan
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Music Video, Short
  • Genres:
    Art, Performance, Documentary
  • Runtime:
    10 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    February 25, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    600 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    United Kingdom
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • FILMArte Festival
    Berlin
    Germany
    May 18, 2023
    German Premiere
    Best Experimental Short Film Award
  • Serbest International Film Festival
    Kishinev
    Moldova, Republic of
    August 25, 2023
    Semi-Finalist
  • Mill of Performing Arts
    Larrissa
    Greece
    September 22, 2023
    Selected
  • International Fine Arts Film Festival
    Santa Barbera
    United States
    October 30, 2023
    North American Premiere
    Winner Best Short Documentary
  • ArteNonStopFestival
    Buenos Aires
    Argentina
    November 7, 2023
    South American Premiere
    Best Experimental Short - Artistic Production
Distribution Information
  • mail@alanmcgowan.com
    Sales Agent
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Alan McGowan

Alan McGowan studied visual communication and film-making at Edinburgh College of Art. He is a prize winning painter who has exhibited nationally and internationally, whose work also encompasses sculpture, writing and performance. The FLOW project, working with his collaborators, brings together the disciplines of music, painting, physical movement and film.

His work is known for it’s combination of free expression and vitality linked to a rigorous approach to draughtsmanship and sensitivity to the subject. His work strives for a balance between the attempt to capture the subject in paint and the elusiveness of experience.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Flow is very much a collaborative project relying on the input of not only the participant performers and crew but also of the present audience, and to a certain extent the film audience also. At the beginning I thought this project would be about the creation of a painting, but it now seems to me that the creation of the painting acts as a kind of touchstone to bring to light part of a process which is more normally hidden. It is something closer to a feeling, a state of mind, a kind of intimacy of attention in the moment.
Fundamentally I think the film is about time and the contradictory nature of time. How time passes away and yet is always in an eternal present. How we would like to hold on to experience and yet it is always passing away, perpetually constructed anew. We try to strike the sparks from the moment.