|
Most of these paintings are recent , there are examples of others from the last 30 years.
They are modernist, expressionstic oil paintings, about colour, pattern,form, movement, texture,and all that jazz , all tangled up with memory and imagination.Like Hans Hoffman and many modern artists, I work towards poetic expression. I try to catch the fleeting changes in light and mood, which are dramatic and make it somehow concrete.
Cornwall encourages reflection, water all around - an icon for the subconsious. People here are trying to understand and seeking time and space amongst the Cornish. Life is dominated by the mighty sea whose tides shift ceaselessly forwards,governed by the moon, marking the seasons.One is aware of the stars, clear and bright in the black skies, the planets clearly visible trajectories. Cornwall is a bewitchingly beautiful place where artists have found inspiration. St.Ives is a small community of seagoing tradition, harbour and town, school and churches, artists and beach life. A lot of building ,craft and arts professionals, hotels and history. Artists are fellow workers. fishing boats and fishermen, the harbourwall and the beautiful hillsides surrounding St.Ives Bay, Godrevy lighthouse, the Steeple, Rosewall and Constabba Hill,Horses at Halsetown . Relationship with place is in it's sight, sound,smell, texture and taste , these senses anchor it in the body- a zip file of a lifetime can be invoked by the call of a gull or the smell of seaweed. The images and colours in the paintings are about constant change and movements,springtime ,sunsets and winter transformations observed in fleeting time. They are from life and this is why they are sometimes called 'naeive' , a rush to capture the moving changes, I am like a fisherman in this, to race the tide, to catch the boats before they leave,the sun before it sinks beyond Carnstabba hill and the fishermen go out or come in. Mostly a la prima, impasto, layered and tonal colours.I love the oil paint and the improbability of the images caught up in wheals of paint.They are alive forever in the paint and continue to live and change with the changing perception of the viewer.
The older work is Studio based from Manchester ,Lincolnshire and Cornwall. The imagery of Music and literature play a big part in the iconography of my work. Landscape allusions in the work of Joni Mitchell,Bob Dylan, Van Morrison,Alan Ginsberg Walt Whitman and Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen and Alan Watts.Painting is 'the creation of the self and the self creating' I assemble hope and possibility, newness out of vivid everyday life.
In painting as in dreams we are like film directors, orchestrating subconsciously. A good painting will always change with the viewer It is rich enough to sustain imagination.It always presents something new.
.Painting is the work of our enduring, often ignored inner
child. It is a language which can express much on many levels. For me
nature,art and education are the trinity. My
paintings are witness to the transfixing beauty which flows in and
out of life. We belong to the earth, not the otherway around. 'A
terrible beauty' , I hope we don't blow it.
All statements , times and sizes in this website are approximate and under review. thanks for visiting the site. It will be updated regularly. 20.2.07
|
