I have become interested in the idea of making paintings that relate to a sense of time or place. The work is based on drawings or photographs of landscapes, interiors of houses, and churchyards. Particular features or aspects of these are recreated on canvas in a simplified or condensed manner, and unnecessary detail is eliminated, sometimes to the point of only using repeated motifs, silhouettes, patterns and negative spaces I am not interested in making naturalistic copies of scenes, but rather edited reconstructions.
The images are built up gradually with thin layers of oil paint. Some areas are erased, altered or obscured, by scrubbing out with turps and repainting again and again. Usually the early layers are brighter stronger colours and the later ones blurred monochromatic shades of blue or grey. The paintings have a vague, indistinct appearance and a spectral, elusive quality, which creates an uncertainty between what’s told and what’s withheld. They do not easily disclose their origins or intentions.