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With landscape and chiaroscuro being the principle vehicles in my work, I am exploring painting’s ability to express feelings of deep emotional significance to myself and, hopefully, the viewer. Can it be done with specific emotions in mind? How does one express powerful emotion and feelings that are abstracted and totally subjective? I don’t know, that’s why I continue to paint. It’s a matter of faith. I like to believe that my paintings are the tracks I leave behind me in my quest for the horizon. I am convinced that there are deep and powerful emotions that are common to everyone and my paintings strive to connect the viewer with those feelings; dramas that are impossible to describe in words. This is the underlying raison d’etre of my being a painter. It is not something I am conscious of all the time or, at least, I try not to be. My paintings need to live their own lives and to exist as spontaneous reflections of experience and for them to remain uncontrived.
It is not my intention to paint the landscape topographically but to create landscapes of paint, and to awaken and express emotions through the qualities of form and juxtaposed colour because of my own direct experience of the landscape (and life) itself. I am seeking to paint as a poet writes verse and as a musician unites abstract sounds to create the symphony that can transport the soul.
Although ultimately my work is not topographic, I use topography to start with and gradually the topography will dissolve and allow the paint to take over and to carry the emotional experience of the landscape. It is not my intension to totally remove the reference of ‘place’ in the work as it helps to keep me focused. However, this can also lead to my falling to close to the topographic and specific, resulting in the work becoming tired. Sometimes the landscape itself can act as a metaphor for the emotive experience of something else, love, sorrow etc.
I work in a variety of media; oils acrylics, watercolour and pastels but oils and acrylics form the major part of my work. I work in the field and in the studio, working from oil or acrylic sketches and try to capture as much information as I instinctively feel I need and to help me become acquainted with the place. It is rarely that I finish a painting ‘en plein air’; I invariably feel the need to make adjustments to it in the studio the following day! I also take and use photographs which act as ‘aides memoir’s’ and to assist with formal elements of the composition back in the studio. I am using palette knives in my work more often these days as I have found these can give me greater control over the intensity and purity of colour in a given passage of work. I tend to work with a fairly naturalistic palette as the colours in the landscape are what have caused the reaction in the first place it seems a logical step to employ them in the work. Besides, the colours in our landscapes can be breathtaking.
I paint using expressive brush/palette knife marks and thick paint because it feels natural for me to paint that way. When I paint my mind is too excited for me to sit down and paint in a calm and composed manner. That coupling of experience and its spontaneous response in paint is vital if the work is to remain alive. However, I am still aware of my need for structure as its loss or negation can lead to the collapse of the work and result in a meaningless mush. My brush/palette knife marks and ‘movement’ need to be an integral part of the total unity and visual harmony of the work so the piece can be read and ventured through. Just as water and music ‘travel’, so the movement of light and form are important elements in my work.
The use of chiaroscuro is not only an important device in my work it is also a vital emotive element in my experience of the landscape around me. For example, the interplay between the light on a field of wheat and the cloud shadows that mask it can create strong emotional responses in me, responses which are very often aroused when I listen to music, especially music in a minor key. I see a parallel with harmony in music and the feelings it can promote and the harmonies of form and colour in paint which I hope can encourage a similar level of feeling. If you could hear my paintings they would be paintings in a minor key.
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