Painting

Colour is very important to me.

For many years I worked exclusively in black and white. I was making large representational drawings first in charcoal and pastel and eventually in graphite/pencil. I always wonder if this direction was a denial of my true nature. I sometimes feel like I was ignoring my intense fascination with colour.

In this new phase of my practice, I have embraced this innate love of oil and of colour, pursuing new interests and pushing the limits of paint in my own way.

Now I play with colour, sometimes using paynes grey, sometimes experimenting with earth tones.

There are very few limitations with colour mixing, just the natural limits of what works or doesn’t work for each painting.

Sometimes I create an under painting layer of cadmium red mixed with alizarin. I normally wait for this to dry and layer over it. Very few of my paintings are “Alla Prima” (or single layer).

Layering creates surprising juxtapositions and textures. In layering I find accidental successes and discover new ways of thinking and feeling through paint and gesture : scraping, dabbing, scratching, spreading, splashing, scumbling and dripping.

Oil paint has a unique texture and resonance that isn’t matched by anything else. It’s flexible and forgiving, particularly when compared to acrylic. Layers can be built up or scraped off and each layer is part of an organic whole.

I am so glad to have rediscovered my love of paint. It has created a whole new impetus for my practice and I am excited to enter the studio each day.

Diving in and playing with its possibilities.