The literal tradition of 'I paint as I see it', the
observant realists, perhaps this description throws
in the face of what art is about. Art is a transition
from measurement of shape, form and colour, line
often delineating from the outline of objects and
the shape within the rectangle of the canvas
that we all seem to paint on nowadays.
Somewhere in this text is an answer which you
yourself have made clear through your work;
abstraction through style of working and presence
through your work. The style of your work
determines the making of the image and not the
other way round as many other artists lamely do.
Unfinished work has its heritage in an untidy mind
and lazy pretentious state of being.
I have fallen into this latter category in the past, but
have since pulled at least one sock up!
What I am saying is the professionalism that you
adopt to maintain interest in your canvases is self-
evident.
Patchwork of colour, a clear stain of
landscape, tapered not as a mosaic, or tapestry but
an organic living picture of faith. There is
atmosphere in your abstraction, and a heart felt
hearth
in the earth, a divulgence of shape, form and
colour which defined only by style and demeanour.
These are all descriptive terms for painting but
useful in investing in the meaning and reflection of
your work. Tentative used of the scratch mark as a
painted line, the outline is more a serious
part of your landscape, the uphill struggle of the
long National Trust Walk. I do feel you have learnt
to move away from the obvious, Foundation
School and Art Degree School, the copying of
techniques, the following for the mass of materials
to amalgamate to an artwork.
Different subject matter the landscape, the
seascape with the community housing, The still life
and the colour of Provence have been handled as
different entities, different subject matter required
a new state of mind. Beginners call it method
acting (painting), but I sense the enjoyment of
experiment at hand with a special understanding
for the foundations of the picture.
Seascapes virile with the sense of shimmer of
colour without the classic shimmer that most
impoverished artists use. The innate colour
formulated,
stippled, and rag worn creates a haze of half-
blindness
for houses where presumably the archaic
communities life, idylic and homely.
Though naive in the purity of colour your seas, and
the nature of the brushwork, I understand them as
an entity, welcoming and enjoyable.
Your still life, strongly derivative from Ben Nicolson
in cut out line, cubism from Braque and Picasso, are
a colour feast, apparently bodged in brush
and healthy in background colour, they are the
servings of life, living entirely through your
technique, happy and outstanding.
Though possibly an esoteric and understandable
delineation and investment in colour, the presence
of Provence, a well-known subject matter since
Van Gogh and Gaugin, provides for the utimate
richness of colour in all its diversity, the surity of
one astounding colour against another, provides a
hive of interest from any of the general public.
