I started this painting by drawing sculpture shapes into a large canvas. I was enjoying myself, and it soon became quite busy. I used a light blue wash to tone it down, but I wanted the drawn elements to be visible underneath. The overall effect was that the painting took on the sense of a stone, so I added the large abstract flowers to bring back some life. Then I began to paint in earnest. At first, randomly, then instinctively. At this stage, I put the canvas in against the wall for a few weeks. That allowed the painting to dry, and it gave me a chance to catch up with it.
When I took it out, I was ready to gamble and lose what I had painted so far. I got absorbed in the dripping of pink rain flowing down in thick layers of oil paint. The colour change from blue to pink was a complete departure for the piece, but it felt like I was getting somewhere.
While that oil paint was drying, I went back to the sketchbook and came up with the abstract shapes you can see painted in Naples yellow. I knew I was getting close, but something was still missing. Later that week, I tried the red shape in the middle and painted the blue Berlin type drawing in the corner. It worked; the painting just clicked.
A Thousand and One Nighttimes is on view at the John Martin Gallery in London through June as part of “An Uncouth Song”
A Thousand and One Nighttimes I 120 x 180 cm
The garden around the shed I paint in has slowly changed colours and shapes since I began working there back in March. It was bound to influence my work in some way. I feel like I want to paint flowers. Not in a photographic way but so can allow nature into these new paintings. I don’t analyse it, just let it roam wherever it wants…
Late on Wednesday night I began drawing shapes with ink. I had an idea of what I wanted to try on a big canvas yesterday I just went for it.
I looked at it this morning and it looks ok -ish.I am never sure how these things will work out. The sculptures on the table are shapes that hopped…
I started making things. They could be three-dimensional drips or unskilled brushstrokes that invade the space in and around the paintings like a crude stage set.
‘Space is the breath of art’ - Frank Lloyd Wright
I was going through some boxes of drawings and I found a sealed package of tiny etchings that I forgot about. I am going to paint on them while I wait for the large oil on canvases are drying in the studio.
Being locked down, I emptied the garden shed and moved in there to paint for a while. It's a bright space made from pretty much all recycled materials. I forgot how nice it was to hang out in here. I like the two front doors. I got them from a Chinese restaurant near
The hero awakens with a strange feeling of otherworldliness caused by a vortex floating through an open window and landing on his head. His mind is firmly stuck inside it, but his body is rooted in this world. The fears that plague him, real and imagined, are momentarily diminished, and in this pause, he is overcome with the burning desire to be free from his prison of conditioned thought. He slowly rises from his bed and begins to walk out into a deserted city. As he is pulled ever deeper into the silent city…
I don't think you could or should explain any piece of art entirely because it cuts it off from alternative interpretations. What I want to do here is talk about the things that happened around it, the things that pushed it into what it became. It was the largest oil on canvas I painted during my time in Berlin. The video was filmed in my Berlin…
This technophobe got an iPad Pro. I am still waiting for flying cars, but in the meantime I let my mind be blown by mixing “live paints” on this glowing glass thing. To be honest, I found it frustrating to get into it. The concept of layers is central to my painting process, but these digital layers feel so alien. I have spent so much time thinking about “layers” and “masks” recently that they have tweaked how I see paint. These small self-portraits are the first…
Today I decided to take all the bits of canvas that have been with me for years out of their various hiding spots and measure them for stretchers. I have been meaning to do this for ages. I am not exactly careful with canvas fabric. Once it’s off the roll, it is fair game. I use it to wrap stuff when I am on the road or as a painting rag. Even when I don’t actually use it, all those bits of fabric are lying around the studio where they get covered in drips and all sorts of other studio DNA. I like my canvases to be…
Got up early, met some cool trees and my favourite unicorn on a toilet door. Passed two floating boxes and some exploding buildings. Bumped into some geometric lines that were hanging out with cool greys and greens. Stumbled on a place that was delicate since the 1800s. Saw a human who has seen many things. Cracked open a …
It’s been a while since I have tidied the studio, so today was the day. There is no doubt that the place is much better than when I started, but it’s still a mess all the same. I have always admired artists that have all their paint sorted according to hues. Brown tubes of paint lying next to red, then comes orange, maybe yellow? It all moves along like an ordered colour chart, and you know exactly where to place …