SYCAMORE Painting

Born in London in 1953, I have always drawn and painted. I completed a Foundation Course at Sir John Cass School of Art and later obtained a Certificate in Art from Brighton University. Having spent some time living in the Far East, I have travelled widely, camera always at hand, and have a large portfolio of photographs. Originally a very figurative painter, enjoying domestic still life in detailed water colour, I have latterly developed a strong interest in abstract and semi-abstract composition. My digital cameras, together with a computer, have become my sketchbook, giving me an image bank from which to work. I have an interest in a number of different areas of imagery, including dereliction and decay, reflection, the landscape of the road and seedheads. In each case, although the original image has integrity of its own, I am usually more interested in the form and pattern found when the picture is cropped. In the same way that fractals reveal themselves at repeated points of magnification; pattern and composition ( sometimes at pixel level), saturation and other adjustments reveal areas of colour and texture that can be isolated to create a new image which is worked up into a large scale painting. I principally use a palette knife, as texture and impasto are critical to the final result. I will often start with a thin wash of a contrasting colour to that which I expect to be the dominating one, and then build up with thin layers, almost like stains, before beginning to build up areas of texture. It is the relationship of line and colour that I find most satisfying to reveal. I have found inspiration in views as diverse as road markings, a reflection in a shop window and a dead car rusting in a desert. I still occasionally work in watercolour, but my style is now informed by my approach to oils. I work at my home studio, and accept commissions. You can contact me HERE. I am a founding member of Crowborough Arts, a local voluntary organisation dedicated to promotion of all the arts in the local area, and I am responsible for the design and maintenance of their website (www.crowborough-arts.org.uk). We are currently selecting for an exhibition which will feature artists from around our region under the title of Artists of the High Weald (www.artistsofthehighweald.org.uk).