not long been back from France…working in watercolour with narrative upon narrative upon narrative.
The garden we're building is coming to completion and the client coincidentally is a University French tutor. Buddhism is big in her daily life and I've designed a garden in sympathy with this calming set of beliefs. All on a budget so there have been compromises…she's happy.
pissing down…excellent. I'm shattered…we took four tons out of a garden then put four tons in. All the form-work is constructed for the curved path and now it's pissing down…I'm happy…my studio beckons…but when it stops raining we must carry on…pray for rain!
August…how long does a painting take? I know how long a piece of string is because I have a tape measure…but a painting is measured in the mind.
I make a mark and it defines a moment, I make another mark and it defines the space between these moments. I'm in no hurry to make my next mark, I'm simply enjoying the incomplete, undefined and unfolding image.
It's a beautiful way of working…a contemplative approach where every mark, every moment…matters…
'Graham's response to landscape is contemplative. Creation becomes a challenge as every mark is considered as the aesthetic process unravels towards sublime resolution. Graham's preoccupations are undoubtedly formal, but his technique relies on more than simply a conscious arrangement of shape and colour. Graham aims to intuitively distil the essence of his visual experience in a much more unlimited way. Landscape provides the ideal motif; unrestricted by figures or buildings, an exploration is permitted which ultimately pervades pure creation.' Sally-Ann Schilling. MA History of Art, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Art Historian and former Lecturer Tate Modern, London
