Words
on the Work
The first phase of my professional art practise and the
results of ten years work culminated in a series of
photo-based portfolios that began as a process of
collecting leaves and bringing them into the studio for
documentation. The subjects were the commonplace detritus
of the natural world. Material that was underfoot
everywhere, nature’s litter discarded after its time of
usefulness had elapsed. The resulting photographs,
presented the individual specimens head on in a simple and
crisp manner. An increase in the scale of the specimens in
the final images had a profound effect on the way they were
perceived. No longer indistinguishable from the group,
individualized they became monumental in status.
The leaf portfolio was followed up with works of seedpods,
tree trunks and cross- sections of the interiors of trees.
After the completion of these works I felt a longing to be
freed from the mechanized nature of the photographic
process. In addition the materials I had been using were
starting to be less readily available. All this led me to
see a day coming when I would have to change my working
method and I began experimenting with drawing and painting.
The propensity to restrict myself to a fairly limited
colour pallet is evident in my painting perhaps based in
years of working with black and white photo imagery.
My
past photo-based works were dependent on the physical
availability of a subject, as I moved into painting
however, the nessessity for a physical subject was no
longer primary. While reproduced images of the Moon are
abundant, I was not interested in doing interpretations
from these; rather, my images of the Moon were executed
principally from memory. Drawing on recall, I sought to
produce images that while not ‘accurate’ would none the
less contain essentials that would evoke the Moon. The
planet paintings were a natural progression from the Moon
series and as a theme were in keeping with my methodology
of establishing, progression and sequencing.
Unlike the Moon paintings, the Planet images are entirely
invented, existing as possible variables in the
imagination. An element of abstraction begins to permeate
the process of painting when working in this free
associative manner, and the possibilities appear endless.