"When conceiving this exhibition it was clear to me that it had to be on a very large scale, and as I have always taken delight in large format paintings with many parts, I knew this painting had to extend beyond any scale I had previously worked on. Without any preconception about which direction this would take or how it would finally look, I allowed myself as much space as I needed to make the figures appear real to me, allow them room to occupy the space, allow their presence to appear believable; that`s how the painting t... Read more

“When conceiving this exhibition it was clear to me that it had to be on a very large scale, and as I have always taken delight in large format paintings with many parts, I knew this painting had to extend beyond any scale I had previously worked on. Without any preconception about which direction this would take or how it would finally look, I allowed myself as much space as I needed to make the figures appear real to me, allow them room to occupy the space, allow their presence to appear believable; that`s how the painting that started as diptych grew into nine parts.

While painting, the painting offers up all kinds of possibilities and opportunities that if you`re open and aware you can take advantage of. This leads you unwittingly to what was originally sought, sensed and foreseen. By following these avenues the possibilities of the painting present themselves and reveal their meaning the figures are in themselves associative, their poses suggestive, the tones and textures intimating a sense of space we are welcome to inhabit. Painting the furniture led me to question how to create a sense of pre-sence through the empty space that inhabits it. The empty chair becomes far more substantial empty than with a figure seated within it, embodying a figure without the figure needing to be there. It conveys both a presence as well as a sense of absence, which led me to an understanding of a persons presence outside the periphery of their physical being. Like everything we inhabit or make our own, it contains a human imprint. It was also important that the the furniture appears very heavy in contrast to what I see as very light painterly gestures. This gives the painting extreme contrasts, in light, in weight, in mood, whereby the lightness of the central character that carries the balance of the painting offers a vivid and vibrant conclusion."