At the end of each day in my studio, working on various paintings on panel and canvas, I use the surplus paint that would otherwise be disposed of, to make small-scale abstract paintings on paper. These paintings have evolved quite naturally in parallel to my main studio practice, becoming an integral experimental component which feeds back into my other work. I often think of these experiments as collaborations with the paint; opportunities to relinquish control and allow the paint to behave according to its own material tendencies. As a result, chance and the unexpected play a prominent role in this work and they become opportunities for me to learn and understand how to respond and work more effectively with them.
The paintings are built up in transparent glazes that create a rich combination of overlapping painterly marks and colour. Each layer dries and sets, preserving that day’s work, like a diary entry, so that the finished painting becomes a stratified history of its own making.
