Inspiration
Gorgeous rust, peeling paint & rotten wood
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Peeling paint excites me ....
I am lost in it. I am mesmerised by it's beauty it's colour it's shape it's texture it's peely-ness. I can't get away from it .... I am obsessed by it. I started this journey just as a painter .... I am still a painter. I paint now .... not with polluting chemicals and man-made brushes Now .... I paint using the magical trickery that is inside the electrical objects that I own. |
Electronic trickery: painting without paint !!
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'When I was studying on my first BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at Reading University I bought a book in a charity shop ...
I think it was in my first year of those four fabulous university years back in the 90's, it was amazing ... 'Colours and Textures of the Greek Islands' ... I still have that book ... thirty years later !! 
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It was wonderful ...
full of fabulously colourful snapshots of buildings and other things ... lots of peeling paint, textures, marks, erosion and rusting metal ... (now doesn't that sound familiar !!) I used that book as a source of excitement and inspiration ... probably every week for the whole of the 4 years that I was there. Then after I had left and was painting out in the real 'grown up' world I still used it ... Painting enormous colourful abstract paintings that were full of texture, mark making and emotional expression. |
The love of texture & mark making
'So not a lot has changed really ...
Over ten years later when I left teaching and moved to Cornwall to study for
my MA it was still peeling paint, textures, marks, erosion and rusting metal
that deeply excited and inspired me.
But I no longer used the magical images in the precious book,
I took my own photos ...
Now another fifteen years later my practice has developed and evolved
but ...
I am still using those environmental fragments that I find
in and around where I live, have my studio and walk my dogs.
I play around with them ...
I adjust their colour ...
I use them to inspire me and feed my imagination.
They are what I use to fill my head with when I make.
The only real difference is that now I don't use canvasses.
Over ten years later when I left teaching and moved to Cornwall to study for
my MA it was still peeling paint, textures, marks, erosion and rusting metal
that deeply excited and inspired me.
But I no longer used the magical images in the precious book,
I took my own photos ...
Now another fifteen years later my practice has developed and evolved
but ...
I am still using those environmental fragments that I find
in and around where I live, have my studio and walk my dogs.
I play around with them ...
I adjust their colour ...
I use them to inspire me and feed my imagination.
They are what I use to fill my head with when I make.
The only real difference is that now I don't use canvasses.
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'These things that I find,
these things that I discover ... these things that deeply move me ... They are beautiful pieces of the world that are often not noticed. they are not seen ... they remain invisible. I am guessing that unless pointed out or photographed their beauty will remain invisible to the majority of people who pass them by. Sitting there with years of history and many tales ... tales of neglect, stories of rain, wind, snow, ice and even, on the odd occasion, hot hot sunshine ... works of art that are created by man and shaped by the mother of nature' |
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What happens when you combine all of these things:
