Tendril Print

Tendril is one of the earliest works in this Lamella series of Abstract Expressionist works. I start with no preconceived notion of what the finished work will look like, embracing chance and improvisation. Decisions about what to apply next onto a given work, are made in a spontaneous, intuitive way, and every mark or gesture is a response to what has already been applied. These works are built up in layers, juxtaposing often quite bold, intense and contrasting colours and a diversity of textures from delicate and translucent glazes, to thickly rendered impasto gestures. I arrive at a title, as the work starts to take shape, and the forms suggest something to me. The way the indigo glaze rolled down the surface, creating delicate curliques, suggested to me the curling forms of jellyfish tentacles or the delicate tendrils of rainforest plant. These intensely coloured expressionist abstractions, are a personal response to the strange new, post-truth, pandemic-stricken world we now live in. They represent a kind of conceptual freedom or escape. Tendril is an oil painting on a wooden panel, with raw pine edges and picture cord on the reverse, ready to hang. It will hang flat against the wall on one screw or picture hook.