City and Guilds of London Art School MA Show October 2021
Grass Dance. 4m x 2m. Acrylic on wall. 2021
Grass Dance is a performance painting that employs a classical method of Chinese painting to arrive at a composition: a careful observation of forms in nature that are then painted according to the disposition of the artist. In this work I’ve applied that method to abstraction, taking several months to study the form of a blade of grass and working it hundreds of times in order to arrive at a sense of knowing the line so well I can improvise with it without thinking. Grass Dance is a celebratory piece: the joy of the art of the line in the East Asian calligraphic tradition and my perception of one aspect of the beauty of God in creation come together in an economy of brushstrokes and a potency of gesture.
Details of Grass Dance
Water, Falling. 4m x 2m. Acrylic paint pen on wall. 2021
Water, Falling immediately followed the making of Grass Dance and was done as a completely improvised performance drawing. Using acrylic paint pens as my musical instruments, it was as if I took the character of the line from Grass Dance and asked: What would this line look like as a piece of music? A starting point for an infinite variation of linear “notes”, this work is a testament to how the ability to play music and write calligraphy can be used to create a new abstract visual language. At points subtle and refined with moments of propinquitous piquancies scattered among the composition like tiny wildflowers, Water, Falling is a soft song of sweet praise to the Creator.
Details of Water, Falling.
Select Works on Paper
Piquancy No. 1; No.2; No. 3; No.4
(left to right)
10.5 cm x 14.8 cm
Acrylic paint pen on Japanese Hakuho paper 220 gsm
2021
