Recent Work

There’s something really powerful about being impulsive or spontaneous. My practice seems to rely on impulsivity, rarely is a recent work pre-planned. There’s something interesting about pulling whatever material seems to be in front of me, like a take away menu, a black marker, a backing board (for a frame) or crappy printer paper and making art from it, or using them as art materials. I’m starting to question is this laziness, or is it genuine? I think a lot of my current practice relies on a certain gesture, mood or response to materials.

Seeing Darren Nixon’s launch pad show at Castlefield Gallery last night I was please with how he had responded to materials, like in a don’t give a fuck mentality painting on cardboard is fucking fine. I love how it has been mistreated and abused, corners bent and scuffed, screws perturbing from timber, unprimed canvas and unfinished woodwork. Its definitely very punk.

I’m also concerned that so many materials go to waste. Even when paper is recycled its not necessarily a sustainable process or with a zero carbon footprint. The process of recycling involves transportation, loading, unloading, machinery, chemicals, man-power, electricity, water, etc etc. Much better to re-use than recycle. Every time I put something in the recycling I think I’m throwing away a potential painting surface or sketching paper, then I find myself going to an art supplies shop and buying painting surfaces and sketching paper! What the fuck. This definitely should influence and be responded to in my work and I think it is beginning to. This idea of covering up that is so prevalent in my work at the moment also comes through, I can see evidence of the pizza menu withstanding the thin layer of white emulsion that sits on top of it. Was this intentional? Nothing much is to be honest. is that the point? Who the fuck knows.

On the works themselves in the above picture, there are some fairly interesting works evolving through drawing and experimenting. I’m still not sure on where most of the source imagery comes from. That’s the most honest way I can describe it. I see my current practice as an on-going experiment or journey, but each work seems to respond to previous works and informing new works, creating dialogues and relationships that go on to formulate a conversation or perspective.

Oil Pastel, Pencil, Felt Tip, Emulsion, Oil and Watercolour on Canvas
59 x 90 x 4.5
March 2015

 
There is almost always a painting once considered finished underneath my works. They have been painted over. Sometimes completely, sometimes enough to drastically alter. This is a crudely made piece of work but with elements of cleaning up involved. I’m interested in the thick build up, the remnants of paint and application, the serendipitous mark making and the notion of borders and boundaries within paintings.

The hint of a figure is little more than a shadow, or a shape that resembles a figure. The materials used have really been abused here, pushed to their limits and evidence of the battle that was fought between them, is left on the surface of the canvas.

This really is an indiscreet and crude piece of work.

I make paintings that reference pictorial qualities associated with landscapes and sometimes portraits, but with no conscious intension to do so. They all seem like simplified versions of something else, or partially covered versions. I’m interested in surface tension, build up of paint, covering over, a notion of grittiness or crudely applied but with elements of tidying up or cleaning involved. But cleaning as in painting over, or sweeping under the carpet, not bothering to remove wallpaper before redecorating. There’s nothing clean about these works on closer inspection, but they do seem to give that impression, almost like a deception. I think the works are full of oxymorons and I can definitely see a series forming.