6.12.2006
An explanation about my work
Why do I paint in different ways?
Throughout my career as a textile designer and painter, people have said to me that my work is beautiful.Usually this has been said whilst looking at a painting or design which has some sort of realistic connection,the painting looks something like the original object, be it a flower or a landscape, so the image has a solid reference which can be compared to in a persons mind.
When I am painting in this connected way, I'm always looking back to the source and refreshing or recording the marks and images that I see and transferring this into a painting or drawing.
I enjoy the discipline of drawing a ‘straight’ representation.
After a while, this process of painting changes. I almost become inwardly saturated with the information that I am recording. It is at this point that I feel that I have to release this tension, through the medium of paint into what is commonly known as an abstract painting.I guess these abstract paintings are more of a representation of my inner world and my feelings rather than an image which represents a solid object. I say 'I guess' because I dont think I can say that these paintings are an 'expression' because as I am working I am entirely at the whim of a process which I cannot name and over which I have no control. I work on the floor or more commonly with the paper or canvas on the wall. I never know where I am going to put the paint next. Its as if my organism or entire being is painting.
When I have finished (I know I have finished because I feel it rather than see it). I am usually amazed at what faces me. Mostly I feel relieved in some way. Rarely will I change anything. My visual sense has no place here. If I make changes, its only if I feel something is not appropriate.
I believe that my paintings have a separate identity to their original source, even though they may have a strong representational connection to it. Because I paint images of what is judged as being beautiful in the outside world I explore the idea that I might be able capture that in all the ways I work . Because my abstracts are not worked from 'outer life' I find it fascinating to entertain the possibility that these images might also contain an essence of Beauty.