More Experimenting

​While most of my work tends to be abstract painting, I have also worked in other media. Some experiments over the past couple of years have involved photographic and digital work, as well as lino-cut prints and cyanotypes. In the lino-cut prints I am trying to recreate something of the blocky feel of woodcuts, while focusing on scientific formulae and geometric forms, as can be seen in the examples below: “Black Hole Sun’, ‘Points of Departure’, ‘Sliding Doors’ and ‘Slow Heat Death’.

​In the cyanotypes I wanted to create something that linked to the idea of the sun (as sunlight is needed to make the pieces). As I was also reading about the Mayan's apocalyptic calendar (the Fifth Sun) the link between the two seemed irresistible. In this series of apocalyptic pieces, I also wanted to use the cyanotype process in a 'painterly' way, with different densities and strengths of colour, experimenting with the process for effect. The pieces work in two cycles – a bleached-out ancient cycle and a clearer, darker present cycle. They have a beginning, middle and end, but repeat certain motifs to hint at the cyclical nature of time. Below see ‘Openings’, ‘No Man’s Land’, ‘Closing Time’, ‘Under Violent Skies’, ‘A Seed in Time’ and ‘Storm and Static’.

​The digital works below follow my usual process of layering and treating digital photographs, often based around an idea taken from either mythology or philosophy. What I’m after, for the final  product, is something a bit eerie and surreal, taking recognizable objects and distorting or manipulating them until they become something other, subverting idea of that the camera never lies and making it something questionable and unreal: ‘Chasing Minotaurs’, ‘Harrowing the Houses of the Dead’ and ‘The Beauty of Being Numb 1 and 2’.