Comfort (1) Painting

I am concerned with the visual and conceptual aspects of erasure, obfuscation, obstruction and secrecy. Transforming, distorting and transcending my experiences into an alphabet of expression. Form, line and colour take precedence in each work and together shape an innate and instinctive pattern. The relationship between colour and the feelings certain colours and colour combinations evoke is always at the forefront of my work. I am interested in the process of creation, sculptural dimensions and creating image through abstracted methods, delving into the realms of pictorial language. The editing process is crucial – the marks and text that are omitted, erased or covered are equally as important as what has been left on view. A pentimento (plural pentimenti, from Italian pentirsi: “to repent”) is an alteration in a painting, evidenced by traces of previous work, showing that the artist has changed his or her mind as to the composition during the process of painting, thus revealing the artist's earlier ideas. My work examines the ways in which a thought process can be realized in paint. An almost sculptural approach to image making, building up paint, scraping it off, pasting on fresh bits of canvas in ways that emphasizes the rough hewn and the handmade. Images coalesce on the surface and rest for a while. Perhaps they say enough and can remain, or they disappear beneath other layers, perhaps to reappear in a different guise on the same canvas, or years later on a new one. These are the traces of my thought, the process of moving from a position of error to truth.