Affinity
The black centre piece base was created by swirling a spatula through areas of black dropped onto the canvas. The rest of the shapes were smeared from the other colours with old credit card with the edge creating the lines. It appears I included some - how many can you see?
Altercation
The background to this one comes from applying the grey with a toilet roll before mixing moulding paste with the yellow and building up layers at the top with a spatula then mixing in Payne’s Grey to provide a contrast. A risky process but one that can yield exciting results. The two colours battle it out for dominance, hence the title.
Amalgamation
Decided to experiment on this one with blending inks with moulding paste to form the foundation of light blues and greys. The dark blue and black inks were then dropped onto that and spread at random with a narrow spatula. It is therefore named ‘Amalgamation’
Celebration
This was the last painting to make it into my recent exhibition of June 2024 where I live in Wickerley, so I was somewhat relaxed as I used, of all things, a rigid cardboard corner protection unit from a recent delivery. Casual strokes of a somewhat cumbersome item followed with a final addition of gold highlights.
Confrontation
This all began on Good Friday 2024 with my mind in turmoil as I couldn't settle on any task to do. I was flitting from one thing to another but couldn't settle on what to do and getting more and more frustated.
I therefore stopped trying and turned to a canvas that had a mildly textured surface that I had created by soaking tissues onto it. Then, for some reason, I started to vigorously add seriously conflicting colours that I had never considered before with a spatula with the final lines coming from a credit card. I stood back from it and said to myself "How have I come to create this, it looks nothing like the colourful and vibrant pieces I was recognised for". A point that some friends quickly made clear to me.
As time went by my thoughts on it, above and beyond the initial 'Confrontation' in the title, changed to viewing it more from a symbolic nature as I couldn't escape the day on which it had been painted.
The yellow now became a symbol of hope in that things would be resolved.
The large area of green symbolised trees with the texture creating inter woven areas to suggest perhaps thorns.
The red trickling down suggested pain noting the paper towel texture was giving clear areas that could resemble veins and looking closer I could even see faces and bodies.
I may be reading too much into this but every time I gaze upon the painting the disturbing Good Friday story gets stronger from these symbols.
Am I the only one?
Hashtag Primaries
A simple concept with the primary colours moved across a black canvas with a spatula before using the edge of it to add the white lines. Simple but effective.
Northern Lights
One of the best sources in my early days back in 2018 were photos on magazines. There is always something magic about the lights so couldn’t resist trying out the contrasting light and dark areas. Back in those days paints were applied with a brush – the prospects of ‘randoms’ had not appeared on the horizon. My how things have changed!
Reminiscences
Time for some Reminiscences but you can choose which decade you think this reflects most. The sixties perhaps? A heavily textured black canvas with the vibrant colours painted on for once except the white highlights on the purple that required an old credit card.
Serence Saturation
Canvas edges taped off then loaded with profiling paste and then the pattern comes from a tile adhesive tool before it gets painted with the glorious dark aquamarine that I recently discovered.
Upcycled Honeycomb
This was a no brainer when I unwrapped a parcel and found the usual bubble wrap replaced by brown paper honeycomb rolls. The canvas was painted purple, and a section pasted onto the canvas before applying burnt umber with a mini roller then the white highlights with spatula and the bright yellow with a totally worn out (stiff as a board) brush.