New Working Theme: Tapestry

Tapestry
152 x 122 cm
Oil on canvas

The paintings I have been working on since my last solo show, Persephone in 2010, have been loosely based around the theme Tapestry.  Not that I have another solo show planned until 2012, so a theme is not particularly important to the way my work is going at the moment.  However, for a while now I have been thinking about the way a tapestry is constructed of thousands of individual woollen stitches and the similarities to the way I construct my paintings.  When a tapestry is completed its numerous raised stitches fuse together visually to become a readable picture as well as a tactile object in its own right. At any stage it is evident when looking at a tapestry of what it is composed of and that the identity of each component stitch still retains all its characteristics of wool.  In a modernist approach to painting I want to keep paint as pure to its original form as I can, so that it is evident to the viewer, that it is paint that they are looking at with all its individual properties of colour, texture and form still retained. I work with a palette knife which gives the surface of my paintings a lot of depth and texture. I like this tactile quality as it helps to maintain and establish the 2-dimensional reality of the canvas.