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Conceptual Art
I see concepts and ideas which I then paint. Each painting has a specific thought behind it often at the intersection of my faith and wanting to change the world. The beauty of art is that you, the viewer, can look at it and generate your own thoughts, ideas and concepts that speak to your context.
Audience of One 2019
Original Oil Painting. For E.
A friend’s daughter was struggling. She had been through a horrendous childhood and now in adolescence was finding it impossible to work out who she was, where she belonged and was pushing everyone close to her away. Moved schools, taken into care. She had one dream: to become famous, to be on a stage and have a following that loved and accepted her. My heart was breaking for her and for so many of the young people in our society like her. I wondered what it would be like for her to be fully alive and at peace with herself. Her on a stage before herself. This is how this painting came about. My hope and prayer is that she will become the woman in the painting, at one and peace with herself and her story, no longer driven by the applause of others.
I combined the technique of the old masters with a more modern style. There are several under paintings layere with glazings. When I added the yellow light glazing unbeknown to me, the underpainting hadn’t fully dried. (It was cold November and had been drying for over a week already!) So instead of a clear yellow glaze, the colours combined. When I stepped back I was so surprised by the mixture of colours. I hadn’t planned it but loved it and so left it like that. Originally I’d also planned to give the woman’s dress a colour, but in the end felt that the black and white effect was perfect.
A friend’s daughter was struggling. She had been through a horrendous childhood and now in adolescence was finding it impossible to work out who she was, where she belonged and was pushing everyone close to her away. Moved schools, taken into care. She had one dream: to become famous, to be on a stage and have a following that loved and accepted her. My heart was breaking for her and for so many of the young people in our society like her. I wondered what it would be like for her to be fully alive and at peace with herself. Her on a stage before herself. This is how this painting came about. My hope and prayer is that she will become the woman in the painting, at one and peace with herself and her story, no longer driven by the applause of others.
I combined the technique of the old masters with a more modern style. There are several under paintings layere with glazings. When I added the yellow light glazing unbeknown to me, the underpainting hadn’t fully dried. (It was cold November and had been drying for over a week already!) So instead of a clear yellow glaze, the colours combined. When I stepped back I was so surprised by the mixture of colours. I hadn’t planned it but loved it and so left it like that. Originally I’d also planned to give the woman’s dress a colour, but in the end felt that the black and white effect was perfect.
In Her Element 2020
Oil Painting. We had a couple of stormy spring days and I had two songs in mind. “When the spirit was moving over the waters” and “Revival’s in the air” which has a couple of lines around the concept of wind: “Let the wind blow, let the tide roll, ’Til the earth knows You're a God of love” and “Revival's in the air (Hey), Oh, catch it if you can, He's moving on the wind, The dawn is breaking”. I remember going for a swim in a local lake which felt like I went swimming in the sea. It was lock down and so a swim was a massive treat. That song went round my head non-stop. I was imagining what it would have been like at the beginning of earth, at the start of it all - there was wind, movement, the Spirit. The Spirit, She, was moving, hovering over the waters. This is my interpretation of that moment. The Spirit, totally free. If only we could be like her, in our element.
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