In 1991 at the Triangle International Artists Workshop in New York State I had the opportunity to use Interference Colour, this was when, this new artists medium was not available in the UK.
I had, then, already been using acrylic gel and building up layers of paint, so I embraced this medium with joy and anticipation. It was certainly a challenge to use and surprisingly unpredictable, however it allowed me to mix new colours, unexplored previously and with promising success.
I mention this now because I have been using this medium with delight ever since, despite its apparent difficulties. I seem to be amongst the very few painters who use it. Good natural light is required to see this colour clearly whilst working and also to show to its best advantage. So my paintings are often difficult to exhibit as they should be seen and impossible to reproduce. The fact that the paintings shift in colour with only slight variations in natural light gives them a temporal colour dimension not available to static images, or lighting. A recent collector remarked that it was like having a dozen paintings in one, as various colours enhance or recede depending on the time of day. I call it, colour breathing with light.
This ambient contingency clearly affects my intuitive decision making in the process of making and resolving any of the recent paintings. Experience is an obdurate necessity.
In my web site I have presented my recent paintings with a close up detail option, this is the closest I can get in the reproduction of the static image. Can you imagine the difference? Or is it that the reality of these paintings are just not in your imagination?
