“What’s small?” the baby elephant asked the ant.
“What works?” asked the ant in response.
“Well when the sun shines it will make you feel warm, even in winter when the air temperature’s cold and changes your mood. It will also provide you with vitamin D which will make you healthier. That works. “
“And when the sun sets in the evenings it gives me this sense of exhilaration and excitement said the ant . That works”
“Oh.” said the elephant.
Sometimes I have a very clear idea of what I want to create. At other times I have no idea. It can be exhilarating or frustrating, thought provoking or puzzling. It doesn’t necessarily come naturally. Whatever the feelings it generates I have the urge to do it. It’s both a compulsion and an indulgence.
It’s like exploring and playing all at the same time. It’s in a constant state of flux . Always fluid and evolving. I learn by doing and find the process often triggers ideas.
I’m interested in colour, form, texture, reflection, dynamics and atmosphere. I aim to explore processes to realise a diverse range of affect that, even using the familiar, may create the aesthetically startling, cause surprise, exhilaration or simple pleasure.
My preferred means of exploring is mainly through abstraction. At times working through the process triggers a light bulb moment that stimulates analogies or concepts and this can lead to a series of explorations round a theme. For example more recently I’ve been interested in the ideas around fragments which came out of the way I was making a painting.
I’m not over concerned with making my concepts or allusions apparent or obvious. I prefer the work to stand by itself; let the observer be taken wherever their mind goes and let their emotions and thoughts be stimulated by their own perceptions.
This exhibition is of a number of small works, made over the past couple of years, that show a few different techniques that are a part of my continuing evolution.
Tuesday – Saturday // 10.00 – 17.00