ABOUT MY PAINTINGS
Acknowledging that in regard to medium, method and subject-matter, contemporary art recognises no boundaries.
The medium of choice is traditional oil-painting stemming from my training in art restoration and of critical importance is the quality of paint on the canvas surface. The transparency of oil and its colour luminosity that enable the creation of a painting by the application of layer upon layer. While the flat surface of the canvas remains intact, the device of layering lends the impression of depth.
My art involves an organic and geometrical stylisation of shapes, exemplified by the spherical puff-ball of a dandelion or the hexagonal shape of a bee-hive. This method is applied in my recent series of paintings inspired by stellar observation as depicted in pre-historic and ancient times. These images are re-interpreted to capture that which is universal rather than the merely ephemeral. For example, I have used the Celtic star images from Bru Na Boine (New Grange) in the Republic of Ireland, engravings from ancient Egyptian and Sumerian tombs as well as depictions from Peru Bolivia and Zambia. I have used the myth of the Dark Star, stellar events such as the Eta Carinae outburst, star constallations such as the Crux and the milky-way. In these paintings I seek to re-interpret in a different medium to the ancients and a in a different time-frame, the earth dwellers everlasting interest in the stars.
