In the summer I paint cows but in the winter my thoughts turn to old derelict Victorian buildings and memories of growing up in a small town dominated by large imposing redbrick breweries. This current series of paintings explores the nature of childhood memory overlain with information from old photographs and the experience of walking in places made unreal by the absence of remembered buildings. I work using the drippiness and layering of the paint to evoke a sense of lost places and the haunting nature of early memories.
This has a couple of problems.
Working with memories - each time I recall a place then look at old photos and go to that place now the memory becomes corrupted with new information. What did I remember and what am I finding out now? This project will have to be a short one while the memories remain.
Working with drippy paint - it looks easy slosh the paint on and let it drip. And sometimes it is. But it's really nerve racking getting the right consistency of paint, waiting till just the right dryness to rub off the drips to the paint below or overpainting again. And it's phenomenally profligate with the paint.
I'm writing this now while waiting for the paint to dry on this - still unfinished needs more layers.
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