After a year spent moving house, renovating the new place and establishing a working space, I’ve now begun to make work again.
This is the new studio:
Although it is early days yet, there seem to be two main strands to the new work:
- a series provisionally titled Marking Time (continuing from an earlier series with the same title) – each work (mixed-media: graphite, conté, watercolour, acrylic, ink, etc.) beginning with short strokes organised in horizontal bands, with a gradual build-up of forms, signs, words and gestures, like improvised music – a mindful and meditative compositional process
Marking Time 1 2013-Mar 2014 Mixed media on canvas 595 x 595mm (in Private Collection)
Marking Time 2 Jan 2013-Mar 2014 Mixed-media on paper 655-x-560 mm
Marking Time 4 June 2014 Mixed media on canvas 910 x 610mm
Marking Time 5 Cezanne’s Hat & Letters Aug 2014 Mix-media on canvas 910 x 610mm
Marking Time 5 – detail
Moonviewing study – late Sept 2014 Acrylic & ink on paper 9.5×8 ins
Moonviewing III – Nov 2014 Acrylic & ink on canvas 30×20 ins
Study – Oct 2014 Acrylic & ink on watercolour paper 13.5×10
- and another series, with no title as yet – working in oils – with references to archaeology, prehistory, fossil forms and observed natural forms, organised in a map-like way
Of stones and small things – begun Feb 2014 Oil on canvas 600 x 1380mm – in progress
Of stones and small things – detail
by early July 2014 it has progressed to this and a detail below from late July
Unexpectedly, over the winter months and into the spring, I started to work on some studies of small objects in the studio:
Oranges & Squash Spring 2015 16×20″ Oil on canvas
Oranges & Cup Spring 2015 30×24 Oil on canvas
Oranges & Cup Spring 2015 detail
Stone studies Spring 2015 24×30 Oil on canvas
Stone studies Spring 2015 detail
Autumn – Winter 2015/2016 Another shift of method and direction – back towards landscape but employing watercolour and drawing with graphite – developing a sense of being in the landscape, walking, changing perspectives, feeling the layered history of a place:
Fossil Landscape Study Oct 2015 – Jan 2016 20.5×14.5 ins watercolour, graphite & acrylic on paper
Fossil Landscape Study – detail
Picos Mountains, Spain Nov 2015 – Jan 2016 33×22 ins watercolour, graphite & acrylic on paper [text reads: Where vultures soar, goats skip and humans weave stories & songs – so many memories & dreams]
Picos Mountains, Spain – detail
Clifftop Walk Dec 2015 – Jan 2016 33 x 22.5 ins Mixed media [Texts reads: In passing – residues of things lost & forgotten] (in Private Collection)
Clifftop Walk – detail left
Clifftop Walk – detail right
Stones,wings & signs July-Nov 2015 33×21 watercolour & graphite
Marking Time 8 Two Pages for Basho June 2015 – June 2016 97 x 66 cms Mixed media on paper
Elegy for Old Boots Mar-May 2016 58 x 81 cms Mixed media on paper
How the Boulder Stands Aug-Sept 2016 22 x 16 ins Mixed media on paper
Organic forms, egg & Dao Aug-Sept 2016 26 x 18 ins Mixed media on paper
Stones, fern, Dao & flow Aug-Sept 2016 32 x 22 ins Mixed media on paper
Leaves, fossil bird & Dao Nov 2016 30 x 20 ins Mixed media on canvas
Cottonwood Creek Elegy Nov-Dec 2016 32 x 23 ins Mixed media on paper
Cottonwood Creek Elegy – detail left
– detail right