#149, July 2009 (130x150cm)
My paintings are concerned with the emotion of seeing rather than the depiction of physical space. I am not painting from life, rather, I try to paint images that give the feeling of seeing and recognition.
The images are intentionally ambiguous and open to interpretation. Ultimately the person looking completes the image in their imagination. The paintings are in a sense 'unfinished' and only become 'finished' in the mind of the viewer.
Each painting is a composite of many paintings. Underneath the final surface there are numerous other obliterated landscapes. Each surface relates closely to the one beneath so that there is an evolution from the first drawn mark. Often a work is only finished when I have completely lost my way, cannot remember what lies beneath and I do not recognise the work as my own.
There is also an attempt to translate every experience into language. I believe that there is a visual language that cannot be translated fully into words. I am interested in developing my capacity to speak using such a visual language.
The painting happens, develops and only later comes my understanding of the concept. The concept is not preconceived but worked out during the making of the image.
I collect pictorial memories just as one collects verbal stories. My visual memory is mysterious and magical to me - how does an image I have no conscious recollection of become transferred into a painting?
I am not painting automatically. I think while working, I hesitate and deliberate. I am thinking visually rather than verbally - shuffling colours, images and shapes in my mind - and making instinctive decisions.
