Biography
With these paintings I am trying to get away from the defined nature of painting and trying to establish a painting process that is in-between painting and sculpture. I have tried to create 3D paintings where the rectangle that the paint sits on, no longer governs the shape of the painting or is the boundary of the painting. Indeed the edge of the paint suggests a beginning rather than an end. I wanted to make paintings that address more literal and material concerns and to this end these are ‘real’ paintings in the sense that all the dimensions of the work are real. The space, depth and texture of the surface is literal rather than suggested by marks on the canvas, there is no illusion of space and depth.
Whilst in the Minimalist tradition this work celebrates the rich voluptuous quality of oil paint. The paintings have a tactile material presence where the materials of the painting assert their own authority. Whilst the eye is drawn to the centre of the paintings there is no fixed reading of the work. The eye will slide over the surface of the painting and physical movement is demanded of the viewer by the structuring. The further the viewer moves away from the work or indeed looks at the work in a different direction, the more the viewer is drawn back and forth across the work to reassess his or her reading.
