Repose

I’ve decided to work mostly in monotone this year. I had not intended on doing any exhibiting but wanted to have a ‘no one is going to see this’ kind of space going on. In this vein I retired to the north for some time drawing. I had some bee in my bonnet which needed to be extricated on paper and it was. I painted a prototype on a large frame and board given to me by friends. It was painted for my wife to bury the myth that I never finish anything for her. My rule was “nothing stays on here that I don’t like”. Seems simple enough but it is amazing how many other voices keep buzzing in my ear. Then the Letham called and asked if I wanted to do a show and despite my intentions I said yes feeling that I had something on the boil.

Strangely one thing I tossed up and down was “how much anatomical openness can I put on the wall?” ‘Nakedness’ in it’s broadest sense is perhaps the word for the works. It is an attempt at a celebration of the luminous darkness and beauty of life in all its transcendence and physicality.
I’d felt a certain tightness developing in previous work and I wanted to move as directly from the sketches to the paintings as I could maintaining their vigour and feel.

Landscapes blur like dreamscapes and perhaps that is the realm most represented in all my paintings. They are mostly set on one area of decking… one of those nice contemplative, liminal spaces where ordinary time is whiled away staring and pondering.

Event listed by lethamgallery

View their other events or contact promoter