Painting in the winter morning sunlight feels fresh, and I am surprised at how much I am getting into this set of canvases. They are all the same size but have different textured linen. Some are raw linen and soak up everything, giving the effect of a chalk pastel. Others are stretched with this fine portrait linen which makes the paint giddy with the fluidity of movement. These paintings have an inherent memory of places and backgrounds. They might grow up to be…
I have no idea what the green shape is or where it came from, but there is a real calmness to it as it watches over the other shapes play. Many of these shapes start as drawings and eventually jump into the oil paintings. I remember that red line shell-like shape in the left-hand corner from a drawing I did on one of the silkscreens from Berlin. The dark sculpture shape in the top right-hand corner was in a series of ink drawings that I later tore up. It conjures up a ceramic, almost …
I started this painting by drawing sculpture shapes into a large canvas. I was enjoying myself, and it soon became quite busy. I used a light blue wash to tone it down, but I wanted the drawn elements to be visible underneath. The overall effect was that the painting took on the sense of a stone, so I added the large abstract flowers to bring back some life. Then I began to paint in earnest. At first, randomly, then instinctively. At this stage, I put the canvas …
This is the journey of “Acrobats and Flowers”, one of the oil paintings in my solo show currently on view at John Martin Gallery in London. I got really into painting these black linear shapes on a red canvas but ended up painting over it in the end. It gave me the idea of painting vertical lines as a central feature, and this is the canvas that absorbed …
I’ve been working on this painting since April 2019, almost two years. Not all the time. I face the canvas against the wall for long stretches in between painting sessions. I try to change the composition by turning the canvas sideways or upside down. The process is the only thing that remains constant. Today I decided to …
