Painting

I work mostly in oils and acrylics, on canvas and on wood panels.  Although I am interested in playing with new materials and exploring their potential, I don't spend a lot of time in art shops anymore.  My materials are fairly simple and direct.  Sometimes they incorporate found materials that I find interesting because of their shape or texture.

The works vary in size according to the space I have to work in, and what I can store. Presently, I have a new studio space which has been built for me here by McLeod Construction of Pender Island and it measures 96 square feet...yes, very small, but very nice, and I'm enjoying working in the space.  It helps to have the printmaking activities and the painting separated.  The printmaking will stay in the present studio site.  At this stage of my life, I am also determined to downsize and do with less.  Although a larger studio space would be divine, and would definitely influence the work, a small space can work equally well and be equally satisfying in the work produced.  The most important space is the space in my mind and heart, and the painting surface itself...not the space it is created in.

My intent in the painting is to explore my own creativity.  I'm not particularly interested in developing a "style", but rather in exploring the opportunities to discover new and fresh ideas through the painting mediium.  Because Canada is already overwhelmed, it seems, with visual images of people and their activities, whether it is television or photo imagery, I don't feel a strong need to reflect that visual storytelling in my painting.  As a result, I find myself pushing beyond the obvious, and searching for the more subtle influences...colour, line, form, texture and relationship.

I'm not looking for "tricks".  I'm interested in an honest exploration, and find that relationships of form play a big part in resonating with my sensibilities.  Colour and line and texture can play around that central theme, but it is important to me that the relationship of the forms in the composition set the tone of the painting.