I think I was looking to introduce more structure to the surreal blobbiness of the previous two paintings. There are some fabulous textures here that are best seen in the flesh. All the paintings are made very quickly once the frame is painted. A matter of minutes.

Approx 100/100cm

Carbon, fixative, paper (130/70 cm)

I made the frame as usual then didn’t do anything with it for weeks. It just sat there daring me to act. Sometimes I have to sneak up on myself if I am to act completely without thought or intent. I did this almost in passing. An act of defiance against the contained expanse of blankness.

It’s called In but nothing here is In at all. Only On. The shaded object seems to be in a wobbly window. Does the window reveal only part of a bigger object? The window itself is in a frame. Or is it one object responding to the frame, captured in the process of falling, floating, bouncing, flying. Is the window moving, revealing different parts of the object? But its an illusion. A pretence. They’re just marks. The records of gestures on an area of surface. My eyes relate them, my brain collaborates and language facilitates. In reverse, without language, everything we see would be two dimensional. Flat. On.

Sometimes like everybody, I get angry and upset when I read the media and I go down into the basement, pick up a stick of charcoal and unleash it unthinkingly on the paper then step back and take a look at what just happened. Now, months later I have to try and think of a title.

135/72 cm

Photo of the innards of a wooden crate in the basement

Oil paint on Arches paper to stop the oil haloing or leeching. Can be inverted.

Splatting oil on from tube, squishing, scraping, peeling to reveal a line of hopping one footed creatures. I looked up monopod and sure enough they are human like creatures with one foot also known as Skiapods because, Pliny says, they like to rest using their foot as a parasol. Some of thes are clearly doing just that. Approx 140/140 cm

Experimenting with materials, this time paper, oil, tape. Oil later soaked into paper leaving halo so i bought a roll of oil friendly paper afterwards. My first large painting approx 140/140 cm

Detail of earlier work revealing interesting details

I poured white spirit onto polystyrene and covered it in carbon to see what happened. Dirty snow.

Mucking around with materials. Tearing, slicing, splodging, smearing, peeling. As a stone carver I’ve always been more excited by the removal of material than adding it. Sandblasting was the most exciting. I’d love to do some more of that. The revealing of the essential. Positive/negative space.