Being There Painting

My paintings are modernist as they experiment with form; use techniques that draw attention to the process and materials used in creating them; and are not part of the realist tradition. I negotiate a middle path between aesthetic appeal and sterile abstraction; between the grip of the past and newness for its own sake. I also want to communicate the joy of colours, lines and forms depicted in oil paint - to communicate at a visceral rather than an intellectual level. This painting is part of my current series, Time Lines, that uses schematic images to examine the linear concept of time or the understanding that we are constantly moving forward into the future and out of the past. I am exploring time as more circular, or a phenomenon that is relative or even illusory. This subverts the idea that art is progressing such that whatever is created today is superior to what went before. My current work is inspired by European Neolithic images from from 7000 - 3500 BC. Their simplification of images produced an abstract, symbolic, conceptual art that relates to my goal as a contemporary artist to express timeless ideas.