A common experience.

oil on canvas. 80x80 cms.

Making any painting, however enjoyable it is, inevitably poses questions about the value of the commitment. None of the people I know are so self assured that they do not ask themselves about this. One makes something and then one makes something else and even if it seems like stepping stones to something it can be difficult to say what that something is. Maybe the journey is indeed the important thing. And so is failing. Failing is one thing:failing well another. When I am asked about my painting I cannot find words adequate to the task of answering or rather the words can be corrupting and get nowhere near the sense of the ambition. A common enough experience I imagine.

A fresh start. Four small paintings that might lead somewhere.

These four paintings began following some small paintings on paper, once again an outcome of observing small patches of terrain whilst walking.

I have been trying to keep the surface alive and allow the pentimenti to be influential. Imagining this first painting on a much larger scale of course leads one to ask how certain areas would work and whether more erasure would be needed, or whether further saturation of certain areas would be obvious once the scale increased.

Even with a small piece like this, I work with the surface flat and have no preference for which way is up. That decision will come later.

oil on canvas. 46x39 cms.

oil on canvas. 50x50 cms.

oil on canvas. 30x30 cms.

oil on canvas, 30x30 cms.