Painting for me is a dynamic and sacred experience. Painting fulfills an urge, a striving to converse with the mysteries that lie within and outside of us.

Painting begins with the creation of a spontaneous and chaotic ground of tones and marks from which images can begin to emerge. The painting evolves and develops as different forms begin to emerge from this context or space. Some forms are significant and manifest to create a scene others are painted over and recede into the background. The original feeling or concept of the work is held in mind as the painting begins and there needs to be a sense of openness and freedom in how the theme will choose to express itself.

Working with these images is intimate and exposing. It is exposing of strength, weakness, despair, beauty and spirit. It is an attempt to describe the ‘indescribable’ perhaps following the Eastern painting traditions of painting as thought in action.

Curiosity

The paintings evoke questions and require us to go deeper. Inviting us to be involved in a process. What does it mean and what happens if I follow it?  Risk taking and the curiosity for what drives us, what creates purpose, what is carried in love – what is the motivating agency? Are we truly free?

Many dimensions can be described in imagery. The created space invites contemplation. Where do we dwell amidst this multi-dimensional reality? How do we imagine a sense of purpose within this context of transience? What is presence?

When joining the current of vitality, the universal motion, there is a sense of revelation, gained by a particular kind of openness and attention. It is a physical shift of consciousness and feeling. The joy enters and opens out into you when the vitality of life is contacted. 

My intention is for the central image to be found at the completion of the painting and yet for previous layers to remain visible as an evolution of the work. 

Making sense of

Being alert to the images emerging and what they want to become. Being brave enough to destroy potentially hours of work, in order to fulfill a new more compelling image.

It is a work full of desire and risk and unknowing.

The over-all image can evolve into something of great power or be the slightest and interpretation of something transient. 

A space is created where the inner and outer worlds of human experience touch and something is released. An interface. Images emerge - and I contemplate a feeling of deeper presence that permeates all.

Time is irrelevant within the painting process. The paintings seem to reach backwards and forwards in the drawing out of form within a space. The final painting often revealing layers of what came before, what is - and even what may come to pass. Painting is a place in which to attempt to describe the indescribable - imagery appears as direct and fluid and honest in its clarity and contradiction. 

It is a place to explore the clarity and also the complexity of the human experience. There are thoughts around 'language' being the key to transformation, that if you can only find the resonating, chiming language, you can move through into the next phase. A gift of love - an opening of possibilities - too much beauty to hold, too much feeling.

The tension between a mind seeking to explain - and a mind yearning to experience. Opening further without restraint - a current of vitality and universal motion.

Creating form  - from the unformed. A deep current holds that world together. 

I believe that painting is a combination of elements; purpose and care in application and at the same time remaining open to being taught by what appears. Almost ‘listening’ to the painting. It is an equal relationship of action and humility or yielding.

Relationship and connection

Relationship. The painting stares back. Each day it is different and asking something new. Each day it offers a choice of potential choices. Some ignored some followed, some glimpsed, some compelling. to catch the new feeling as it comes into consciousness hold it long enough to understand something and then let it go.

Our need to express and communicate through drawing seems to be innate, a long tradition going back over 30,000 years to people of the ice age and before.

As humans we create diverse and sometimes highly ambitious descriptions to portray and work through our internal questioning and desires. What is this urge to ‘make our mark’ to connect with material and bridge the inner and outer world of our experience? Could it be that this working with ideas and material is essential for our evolution as human beings – the imagination, body and perception working together in a process of intense learning and expressive power?

There appears to be a deep unconscious yearning for connection inside of us that reaches for a place of reconciliation and harmony. I believe this to be inherent and purposeful. Sometimes we hold or ‘hook’ into beliefs and patterns that can prove unhelpful as we try to make sense of our worlds, yet our thoughts, learning, our bodies are naturally flowing, continuously shaping and adapting to the context in which we find ourselves.

Through all the Arts we are attempting to describe or re-create for just a moment this intangible experience we call life, the tension between the ‘holding’ and the flow, being the most interesting of human dilemmas.