An Education Painting

Working with unconventional materials; plaster, cement and other stone products, I use canvas as a starting point for composition. Surfaces are created from mixed media including a variety of metallic chemicals to produce colour and tone, which with the base layer are real connections to the landscape in which we live, using chemical reactions in a kind of alchemy, bonding us to the elements from which we all originate. Sometimes, human hair or other objects are used as a direct reference to humanity is required. Recycled canvases and framing are often used to provide a sense of history; the original painting emerging, partially seen through a new surface. Any viewer will naturally draw their own conclusions and sense of meaning from what they see and their interpretation will be no less correct than my intention; we must all perceive visually according to our individual experience. Perhaps this might be an emotional response to the composition of the work represented perhaps by a melancholic memory of an opportunity won or squandered, someone or something lost or abandoned. Maybe it is the prospect of the future, whether this is bleak, uncertain, mysterious or exciting. As we are forged from the elements, so must we return; immortality is not ours to possess. There is truth to be found within the chemistry of these works; change, growth and decay. Here, no illusion is required and what appears to be solid and fixed will evolve according to what is dictated by the external influences of history and matter. If you find something within my paintings, it derives from your own memory, knowledge and desires."
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