A blank canvas presents infinite possible ways to create a painting.

A finished canvas presents the ever decreasing choices made while painting.  I don’t understand why one thing grabs my attention in the first place.  However, I do know that I am exploring my fundamental ‘question’ when I paint.

The act of ‘observation’.  I find the idea that light is not truly light until it is observed intriguing – scientifically, psychologically and creatively.  The very act of ‘looking’ interacts with what is ‘observed’.  We all have individual mental pictures of  reality which are informed by personal, family, cultural and educational experiences and beliefs.    

My framework is a psychological ‘experiment’ about the imaginative process.  A combined scientific, creative and philosophical exploration, using my ‘mind’ as an instrument of analysis and imagination. 

structured research

I investigate, research and respond to high level concepts ‘behind’ maths and physics ideas that ‘catch my mind’s eye’.  Through my research, I put my mind into a certain way of thinking and set up the constraints and conditions for my ‘experiment’.  I do not ‘predetermine’ the outcome of my experiment. 

At the same time, I investigate and develop technical aspects of my painting practice.

spontaneous imagination

The next step is to switch deliberately to imaginative ‘mode’ and I work in silence to see what happens in this state of mind with the knowledge, ideas, experience and materials I have acquired. 

a painting is:

•   a particular response to my current ideas, knowledge, beliefs and experiences

•   a product of my curiosity and experience of often counter intuitive concepts that seem just beyond reach yet also recognised and understood

•   seen and understood in ways that are both unique to each individual and the result of accumulated human knowledge and experience.