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Artist Statement
As an artist there have been a range of influences in my
work, some occur sequentially and some simultaneously,
but many by accident or serendipity. Nature and nurture
have fed upon each other to create a form of expression
which is a personal visual language.
Through the exploration of psyche I begin to understand
the need to explore landscape and walking has become an
important part of this exploration. Following this
journey comes the exploration of space on a canvas. I
believe that I am in the tradition of artists such as
Ivon Hitchens, Auerbach and Hodgkins. Unlike Hitchens
who creates work that is non symbolic my works are both
allusive and symbolic but I take from him the interest
in spatial sequencing.
When I think about form and space on a canvas it moves
away from representation to abstraction. For me the
thing which is the essence of abstraction is the ghost
of representation. The boat shape in a Heron painting
for example, it’s placement within the canvas abstracts
it. To throw away the topographical mark making, go
beyond it and then with one mark bring it back creates a
visual language which hovers between reality and the
imagination. Space is the stage on which you say
something, it is created by the placement of a form. The
contrast between line and colour is what creates this
tension.
It is through the act of walking and travelling that
holds the key to all my work. Through the exploration of
a given landscape I discover a story to tell. At the
source of my work is the story.
Over the past number of years my work practice has taken
me to various countries and places. Whether this be
Skagen on the Danish coast or to India my search for a
way of taking the local history and making a visual
response has always been the same.
Through an investigation of place names the discovery of
a continuous oral tradition has found it’s way into our
contemporary lives, of note are the stories of the Druid
tradition.
I find the mood of a landscape through it’s people, I
interpret this through it’s colour which sometimes can
be incidental as with the Irish landscape. A small
flower, a piece of driftwood can determine the colour of
the whole painting.
The overriding element of a painting for me is colour.
Strong colour with slight pigment changes are used to
create the mood of a place. The colour is also a way of
looking of that magic realism element in a painting,
it’s otherness.
I am open to things happening on a canvas even though I
use many notebooks as reference, while making a painting
the things that happen with paint are celebrated. |
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