Black flag Painting

Biography and Artist's Statement Biography: In 1987-1988 Philip was Artist in Residence at The National Gallery, London. After this seminal period, Philip was represented by the London galleries, New Academy Gallery and Rocket Gallery. Subsequently, he was Artist in Residence at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, USA; Fundación Valparaíso, Mojácar, Spain; Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur, India; Lowick House Print Workshop, Cumbria, UK and at Bemis Center, Nebraska, USA. Philip has made three extensive visits to the high desert regions of the south west USA – New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and Utah – which culminated in an ongoing series of paintings called The Western Lands which were exhibited in London. He has spent several extended periods living and painting in Greece, and in Tokyo. Philip’s creativity also finds an outlet in the making of one-off books, comics and 25 years of mail art envelopes. Since 2002 he has been a contributor to and co-editor of the limited-edition artists’ publication Issue. Philip’s wide-ranging interests, natural curiosity and passion for reading has led him to explore subjects as diverse as quantum physics, chemistry, biodiversity, the ancient world and the complexity of plants – a National Garden Festival proposal was rejected by the judges for being too “horticulturally anarchic”. Philip now lives and works in Dorset, surrounded by a folded landscape with expansive ever-changing skies. Artist's Statement: The paintings are concerned with my experience of location and memory, and the connections and juxtapositions they may suggest - an attempt to make a response to the unclear glimpses and selected fictions of reality. I utilise chance and change, and incorporate found material specific either to the location and or the concept of the work. The found material can be in the form of text, xeroxes, photos, maps, sheet metal, textiles, computer generated images, ephemera etc. This material becomes the initial layer which is then painted over, scratched through, sanded off, acid dissolved in any combination and order. The finished painting becomes charged from the build-up of the various layers, traces and processes, as well as from the guiding idea and image. The finished surface always shows, to a greater or lesser degree, the history of the working process, even if it is not overly clear what that history has been.