"Pope Benedict Xvi" Painting

The body of work which forms the process of my studio practice questions the boundaries which define form through a process of dislocation and suspension. Objects are pulled apart and suspended in space, ridding form of its sense of containment, separateness and isolation.The content of these paintings pursues the endless task of making the work of visual invention and creation coincide with an exploration of the territory of figurative painting. The anonymous location of an interior or exterior space containing anonymous figures and objects which appear to have lost their function through a process of formalization and re-creation. My paintings are concurred with references in the natural world. Light and shadow, trace and mark, as both a material process, and as the creation of a fictional space for the imagination to occupy. A sense of illusion through colour, light or texture, is given to the viewer as a foothold in the painting providing some tangible relationship or feeling for atmosphere with which they can identify. The work explores relations between figure and space, or rather an investigation of in-between spaces. These paintings contain imagery of fragments, decorative panels, circular forms, inhabited by a single figure in absurd surroundings. The appearance of horizontal and vertical lines remains the only interior reference suggesting architectural structures, breaking the narrative and creating a distance between viewer and image. The paintings resemble stage sets, dramatizing the quality of light and shadow, creating a sense of readiness and vulnerability, suggesting - something has happened, or is going to happen. The form of these paintings takes shape through a gradual process of layering and as the internal logic of each composition unfolds; forms are defined, buried and rediscovered. Each painting is a composite of many paintings, revealing the visible traces of its construction.Distinctions between painting and drawing are also prevalent in the work. Line, trace, mark, and colour are called in to question creating a juxtaposition of pictorial fields of its construction. The source of light which characterizes my paintings not only adds volume and definition to each form but also defines the focal points of the painting. The outline on the other hand, penetrates from one shape to another, constructing the meshing and melding of images. My paintings are concurred with the history of the evolution of the image.