Questions and Answers!!

My solo show Recent Paintings 2015 is opening this week, and instead of asking some kind individual to do the honours, we have decided to have a informal introduction with Denise and Deirdre from The Doorway Gallery asking me a few questions about the work etc, and hopefully some questions from interested people that will be there on the day.

It is always quite difficult for me to put in to words what I am doing or trying to achieve with my work, as painting happens in the dynamic and is so much to do with the physical act of painting itself, its like trying to describe to someone how to drive a car, when you break down the process into seperate units it doesn’t really describe what is going on, because it is about using a multiple set of skills together in union, that over time have  become part of the sub-conscious.

Over the years, I have developed a style and subject matter that is specifically my own and expresses what I want to say when it comes to mood, colour, composition, perspective, texture, influences, and subject matter. And therefore I am quite clear on what I paint and how I paint it.  My subject matter is taken from my every day life and I can see repeated themes cropping up over again, in an inexhaustible need to create sense out of the random chaos of life.  I need security and a safe haven to exist in, and my paintings provide that calm resolve that seems so essential to my well being.  Colour for me is a vital part of my life, we all respond to colour in an emotional way, it creates a dialogue within us, and we react to it in all sorts of complex ways, but it is something we can’t ignore.  So as a painter I can use this innate quality of colour, as a tool in which to construct my compositions.  I have gained your attention by colour, then I will keep you looking as I take your eyes on a journey around my constructed space.  My edict is too never become formulaic, or slick, as I need to keep a high level of concentration up when I paint.   The feeling of free-falling that I often have when I start a painting creates the adrenalin I need, to bring that extra something to the work.   I love the 2-Dimensional surface of a canvas and I want to further enhance its decorative flat qualities rather than create pictorial illusion and space, which has never interested me.  That is why I disregard the rules of perspective, and twist and dominate it, so that it plays second fiddle to the flat surface of the canvas.

 I want to create very personal and individualistic paintings, that honour the beauty of colour and texture of paint, and I want to explore subject matter that has a relevance to me and that I  respond to emotionally.   I take inspiration from many eclectic sources either the people and objects and landspace around me, or a response to other historial paintings or objects of beauty that I come across through books, films, poems etc,.  I also love to take on the  challenge of recreating through paint, a mood or feeling that I want to further capture and hold.  Just my way of understanding what it is to be alive.

Spring Walk 150x61cm oil on board part of Recent Paintings exhibition opening Thursday 7th May 6-7.30pm