Can you briefly describe what you do?
I make small improvisatory paintings using acrylic paint on canvas (and
occasionally on found boards).
What drives you to make work?
It just seems to me to be one of a handful of activities worth doing and
that makes any sense. Just in the physical act, the decision making process,
applying paint upon a previously worked surface and I'm immediately lost in the
practice, the search and personal discovery which takes place. I think like
most artists I like to push at any parameters from time to time, to explore
some new territory and surprise myself. Each new painting seems to me to offer
always new possibilities.
Can you tell me something of your
day-to-day working practices?
I get into the studio usually after an early morning walk on the moors
with my dog. The walk is ideal preparation time, allowing for reflection. In my
studio I have stacks of (shop purchased) small ready stretched canvases and I
always have a number of pieces of canvas, paper and boards on the floor, in
various states of beginning. Other works are on the walls and these tend to be
the ones I consider are near some state of becoming.
In the studio I attempt to begin straight away. I now work with a newly
found urgency, across any number of canvases upon the floor, adding and
obscuring stains of colour with new variously generated marks. This is the
prelude, the warm up or loosening up period, like in some sports. My thinking at
that point is, in part, that I’m engaged with drawing and allowing paint to be
paint on the taught or loose plane of the support. This is the initial attempt
to begin to open up a space for a dialogue. One piece generally captures and
holds my interest and I concentrate on that one usually for the rest of the
session. I'm not trying to resolve anything; I attempt to maintain a level of
distance and ambivalence towards the painting. The practice is one of trying to
be in the moment during the act of applying, removing and the adjustment of
liquid colour over the surface - just being present that instant when some form
of dialogue begins within each work. I spend the day in the studio until late
afternoon. In the evening I may return to continue to paint or alternatively I
might work on some drawings.
How long have you been working in that
way?
I guess for about 3 or 4 years now.
Which artists have had the greatest
affect on your work?
What, outside visual art, informs your
practice?
Travel, walking, streets; in short the world about me. I now realise I
really don't have to travel very far from home, I just have to be open and the
unfamiliarity of a place can be [re]discovered. That impression or experience
is then always available to me to be called upon within the confines of the
studio. Music and literature have always been close to hand, and thinking
around these subjects have, over time, informed my thinking. My sister-in-law
is a member of GIO (Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra) and she recently introduced
me to graphic scores - which just blew me away!
How would you like people to engage
with your work?
If they take the time to look then I'm happy, however, I would prefer it
to happen in an unmediated and open way, without the aid of a statement or
explanations, just a simple meeting.
Have you seen anything recently that
has made an impression?
Recently I have begun exchanging works with a group of artists I've meet
via the internet, including: Susan S Scott, Keith Murdoch and David T Miller.
Their paintings now hang on the walls of my home and make a wonderful
impression on me on daily basis.
Do you have anything exciting on the
horizon?
Yes! Also, I'm just about to make another exchange of work with an Australian
artist Inga Dalrymple, which I'm really pleased about!
