about ...
my work ...
The most obvious influence on my work is that of Jackson Pollock. A turning point in my artistic development was my first attempt to produce a “drip painting”. The beauty of the paint trails and the expressive power of the result was unlike anything that I had produced before and gave my work a new sense of direction.
Since then, Pollock – type marks have been present in all my paintings and I continue to experiment with the technique using different paints.
I like to paint on a firm rigid surface and so I often use sheets of plywood, which I mount on a wooden frame. Sometimes I cover the sheets with canvas.
I apply paint in various ways but none of them involves putting it on with a brush. My aim is that the paint should look as beautiful as it does when emerging from the tube or tin. I try to interfere with it as little as possible often leaving it to run where it will.
Sometimes I rub the paint into the surface of the picture with my hands. At others I let it run down the tilted picture plane. This work is done in the studio. At some stage I will throw paint (often enamel) onto the painting using a stick. I usually do this in my garden because I need the space.
My painting operations tend to be performed rapidly and involve decisions, which are intuitive. Often I need to scrape the paint off and to repeat (and usually modify) the process until I am happy about the final result.
What about the resulting image? This reflects the way the paint is applied. Rapid gestures can give a sense of movement to a painting and rhythmic movements often translate well. Sometimes an idea or a feeling about a space comes through. The paintings can look very different as the light varies – sometimes giving a quite dramatic 3-D effect.
If asked for short artist’s statement to summarise my approach, my current offering would be:
Paints are beautiful in themselves and each one has its own natural way of moving before it dries. In my work I aim to demonstrate both of these characteristics. I apply paint with a small degree of constraint to its movement - perhaps throwing it through the air onto a surface or, once there, allowing it to run freely. I seek a result that not only records my gestures but also creates illusions into which the observer can be drawn.
But what is “a small degree of constraint”? Trying to answer that question has occupied me for the three years since the HND course finished and the resulting paintings indicate an artistic journey, which is continuing.
