Proportions in space. Abstract composition, Feb 2014. Acrylic on canvas, 50cm x 50cm

The intensity of content is varied by many different components. Colour, shape and the proportions between them are fundamental building blocks to be sure. Beyond these we have an infinite array of other parts, and considering these, it's a challenge to stay even close to some kind of coherence in a painting. I worked carefully with areas, and placement here, and returned to the canvas numerous times. Initially texture had played a bigger role, but as the colours grew in significance the textural element diminished. I seeked the advice from fellow artists on a few occasions and this was always very helpful. The palette knife was again crucial for determining the nature of the outcome of this work. All enquiries to www.ptfineart.co.uk

The humming. Yellow, Red and Grey painting Jan 2014 Mixed media on canvas, 80 cm x 100 cm

There is a dead-pan quality to colour fields that come close to notes in music. Variations of intensity, tone and volume all has to be chosen when working the surface. The lure is as always to put too much into the composition. Here I wanted to get to a point of balance where the output from the canvas was a just enough to create activity, but still sparse enough to stay solid.

Neutrality and Narrative. White and Buff White Painting, Jan 2014 Acrylics on canvas 46 cm x 61 cm

In a dark room it takes a little while for the eyes to adjust themselves to the surroundings. Once we start to discern shapes and spaces we realize how different everything looks in the dark. We might even be in a familiar room, yet what we see has an unfamiliar character to it. Colour has all but disappeared, shapes are vague at best. The longer we look the more we make out, though. Our eyes adjust. Images, shapes and spaces slowly appear. The more I consider abstraction within a narrow band of shapes, the more can I seem to find different narratives where there previously appeared to be none. The excitement of walking past a brick wall, or a metal door is a new discovery. In this painting, again an old work became the ground for a combination of neutral colours, normal white and buff white.

The cutting of space. Blue and White Composition, Jan 2014. Acrylics on canvas, 40.5cm x 50.7cm

Some of the work that doesn't quite make it in my eyes often create a perfect ground for new work. I have spoken about this earlier on my blog, and there is a particular satisfaction in "burying" a painting and see a brand new one "grow" from its shallow grave. Life and death in a never ending ring-dance through time. We start new projects all the time, but we can never quite escape our past. We might as well make it work for us. I had thought a lot about blue, different combinations of blue and decided to use it with white, which is a colour I use a lot. I set to work on texture and the cutting of space, working with the proportions of the areas to achieve the balance I was looking for. The slow build-up of layers by the help of the metal scraper is how I work in the majority of cases, and on top of old textures the results can never quite be predicted. For enquiries about this work, please contact Panzer Trotman Fine Art Gallery on www.ptfineart.co.uk

Opposition, Harmony and the Void. Abstract Painting, Jan 2014 Acrylics on canvas, 50cm x 50cm

To put universal conditions down as simply as possible has always interested me. To paint "conditions" felt like a challenge, and I wanted to make a statement that could serve three purposes. Firstly it was to address general conditions of life, existence and everything, to paraphrase Douglas Adams. Secondly it needed to be simple and thirdly it should be "quiet" enough to allow multiple interpretations. This painting relies less on texture, it's one of my more stringently executed works. Hesitation need not apply.
We pursue everything surrounded by the void. We might oppose something, or somebody. We might be involved in struggle. We might chase a goal. We might have a balanced and fruitful relationship with something or someone, and this always exists in relation to the void, whatever the void might mean. The void can equally mean time itself. Both the past and the future can be seen as a void. Life, death, activity, passivity, individuality and community with others is all played out in the present, in the midst of the void. The void itself, like the blank canvas, creates the singularly most important condition for anything. As I have an interest in science, I wanted the painting to be a homage to earthly, non-lyrical considerations, such as the periodic table or perhaps diagrams of molecular compositions as well as all of the above. A little about a lot.

On texture. Yellow, White and Black painting. December 2013. Acrylics on canvas 100 cm x 130 cm

Texture is an interesting carrier of narrative when compared with the properties of colour and composition.  If colour is emotion, and composition the distribution of said emotion, texture speaks of the manner in which it all came together. I wanted the the work to address a tension between order and erosion, or tension between the idea and the meagre means of its execution.

A Disneyland in the former East Germany. Untitled (Dresden) December 2013 Acrylics on canvas, 60 cm x 60 cm

Flat colour fields often denote strong meaning. I look at road signs, flags and logos for companies or organisations. Clarity and strength of conviction is put forward by someone for the world to take heed of. However, blind conviction often fails, I find. In the way we write it, "blind conviction" we also find the clue to why it might not have the necessary properties to survive in the long run. It is, indeed, blind.  I find desaturated, tarnished and broken signage or flags particularly arresting. Considering that all is vanity anyway as the olden philosophers pointed out aeons ago, I find I have a certain sympathy for the collapsed imperatives of these utilitarian works. Especially when that which has been tarnished once had positive, strong or powerfully authoritarian leanings. We deride the past at our peril, however, and sometimes the old "truths" can tell us more of our present than we might want to admit. Combatting horizontals and verticals can be used to illustrate this tension between now and then, truth and defunct truths. Had Erich Honecker run a Disneyland in the former DDR we would now view it as a fossil, a crashed illusion, and the feeble colours of the old site would indicate to us the weakness of the whole venture. Such is our instinctive response to fading colours. Such is our view of the defeated past. As I worked this canvas, the name "Dresden" kept popping up in my mind when I thought of the nature of how I painted. Dresden was almost eradicated through bombing raids during WWII, and as a city on the losing side, I found the name suited my thoughts on the battle we all take part in, the battle between intent and time.