February has been a good month for work.

image

 

image

The photos, sketches and ideas I gathered whilst in Suffolk last month, were an ideal subject to concentrate and develop a new painting method. My images were often multiple views of the same view showing different aspects of the subject and were  taken a various weathers and times of day. They all managed to capture that particular resonance of flat land and the particular features that are so special about the Suffolk coastline and neighbouring areas.

The resulting paintings are much simpler in content and deal with larger forms with harmonising colours and small contrasting accents. I have found that manipulating the subject matter of the photos by cutting up, overdrawing and restructuring before the painting starts gives me a basis to explore picture making before I take up a brush. Also, I have been experimenting with free expression under painting to set up a colour palette with pattern and texture before working on top. This allows me to expose parts of that background leaving some complexity in certain areas of the picture that would be difficult to repeat in the working layer over it.

All this re- working of my painting practice has made my previous written artist statement (that I have refined over the years ) looking decidedly ‘out of date’ now, and I have completely re-written the text to incorporate these new ideas and methods. It is not quite as I want it yet but I will upload it on the ‘about’ page on the website soon.

Here are some of the latest efforts developed from these ideas.