artist's statement
figurative art
Before I could be clear about where I was going as an artist, I first had to answer the question "who do I think I am?" And in order to answer this I first had to understand, artistically speaking, where I came from. Having immersed myself in my artistic heritage, making an intensive exploration of Western art through studying, copying and teaching, I re-surfaced with a renewed sense of direction and purpose, and the awareness of a wider (and older) artistic context in which to work. I found at my disposal a treasure trove of styles, symbols and established meanings that I felt at liberty to adopt or adapt creatively in my own work; and the challenge became to transform something old into something new.
An ongoing dialogue between past and present, my figurative paintings sometimes combine together elements from artworks of different periods; but they can also include other content such as man-made objects, animals, landscapes and contemporary figures. Set in a different context, the art of the past can be seen in a new light. Juxtaposed with people, it can seem to represent their memories, dreams, hopes or aspirations - or, from the standpoint of another era, to form a commentary on our own time.
Everything I put in my paintings is symbolic; and new, beguiling narratives begin to emerge as a range of contrasting elements from different times and places are incorporated into a sometimes surreal, dreamlike synthesis. Using this "symbolic" approach I have explored issues such as the struggle between science and religion to shape our beliefs, or the impact of war, on individual lives and on our society as a whole.
My works sometimes use the device of a picture frame within the picture (usually painted but sometimes real). Its function is ambivalent: it can mark the boundary that separates the realms of art and everyday reality, or act as a crossover between the personal and collective imagination. It can be a symbolic “thought bubble” as in a cartoon, allowing us to visualise what goes on in the mind of another, or serve as a symbolic gateway between different eras, a crossover between contrasting and apparently separate worlds.
But whilst my work can deal with complex ideas, it also embraces feelings and intuitions. Sometimes I begin in an exploratory way by meditating on a wide range of source material, usually selecting things because they trigger some kind of emotional response. Sometimes an image simply appears in my head during the night; but the time that it takes to do an oil painting allows embellishments and different interpretations to develop as I paint it. As a work takes shape I often feel exhilarated working with light and colour, relishing the challenge to achieve richness and unity, to forge a forceful whole from the sometimes disparate elements. But as I strive to achieve this resolution my intuition can take the work in unexpected directions, adding a new element, colour or style, the painting seeming to dictate what to do next. I might end up combining a unifying traditional glaze, fragmentary cubist planes, or surrealist effects, the techniques resonating with the symbolic associations of the subject matter. But the end result is invariably open-ended; I like to create something a bit puzzling, to cast it out to the world and say “make of this what you will”.
Our figurative artistic heritage is the soil from which contemporary art has grown, and it continues to nourish and enrich my own work, and provide me with a sense of continuity, of working within a wider context. I see it as a well of inspiration full of exciting creative possibilities; it provides me with a versatile language of pictorial styles and symbols, which is continually adapted, redefined and re-invented in the process of saying something new.
