PAINTINGS
I enjoy the process of painting in itself so I am not concerned with having a particular image in mind when I start, rather allowing the paint, randomly applied collage and free drawing to lead me in an intuitive way. I build up layers of these materials, then sand and scrape back areas, perhaps repeating with more paint and collage, until eventually a narrative begins to form and I develop an idea of where I want the painting to go. This may be in a fully or semi-abstract way. In the later stages of the process, I spend a lot of time thinking about the piece, editing and balancing principles of design, colour, tone etc. and assessing whether I have achieved my aims in the painting. That final stage may only require a few tweaks or, at the other extreme, I may decide it’s not working, cover everything up and start again! Thankfully, the finish usually comes at a point somewhere between these two extremes.
