New Work

I'd like to introduce you to two new paintings, Floodward and Mudward.

Each is 2' square and oil on canvas. The point of view in each painting is about 10 feet from the other but they are facing in almost exactly opposite directions - Mudward along the bottom of Cooper's Hill towards Maranello, Floodward out across the mead towards the tearooms. The names are not as daft as they sound - a couple of years ago whilst meandering through the Surrey Hills I passed through a village (somewhere between Gomshall and Friday Street) where someone had replaced the sign at the crossroads with one with altogether more human directions - This Way, That Way, Over There and Somewhere Else - and I have never quite seen directions the same way since. I like the idea that instead of being a prosaic "left" a direction can evoke the destination or the path - upward and skyward exist and I'm sure I've seen Godward used too.

I have also shown a less formal photo of Floodward. Some of you may remember that a while back I started thinking about white as a colour. Although the project I want to do has stalled for now as I have yet to find a composition which will do everything I want and I still can't find affordable Cremnitz, the thinking around this continues. Not only does this painting include three whites - Flake, Titanium and Zinc - but I have manipulated the texture of my marks purely and simply to affect how they catch the light. This means the horizon has turned out brighter than any paint has a right to be, but it doesn't show in a formal, conventionally lit photograph of a painting. The left hand photo hints at it nicely (it also show the top of the wood-burning easel from my last post!)