Artists Statement
My paintings engage with their own visual history and explore the tension between image and medium. Through a reinterpretation of John Ruskin’s ideas I have developed a critical approach in my painting where both past and present can be channelled into the picture plane. In particular I explore Ruskin’s ideas of nature in the context of contemporary natural forms, such as atmospheric data and cosmic imagery. This has been significant for me in rethinking the idea of the landscape. Physically through disruption to the surface and the use of gesture I aim to keep my paintings shifting between states of clarity and intangibility.
The collapse into materiality within the paintings is inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s own physical deterioration and it’s impact on his late work. This degenerative shift plays with the dissolution of classical ideals in western painting and also creates an ambiguity open for interpretation, as remnants of recognisable imagery interact with the viewer. The qualities of paint and its behaviour of blooming, forming abstract shapes of it’s own, led me to create a motif in the vein of Wassily Kandinsky, yet one which is autonomous. Visually a mixture of this blooming effect and a microorganism the motif inhabits the painting, living upon the surface playing with both image and materiality.
