Small paintings, big ideas.

I have a series of very small paintings on the go. They are 15cm squares with simple designs that allow me to respond to fleeting impressions in my lived environment. If you’re picturing me now under an umbrella looking at light sweeping across a field, you may be surprised. I have always been inspired by magazine photographs and colour. They are themes that run through my art and reappear every time I get serious about it. These small paintings are quick to make and allow me to respond to exciting colour combinations that I find in magazines newspapers and posters. I spend time mixing the colours to match exactly so they react to each other in the way that caught my eye, and when I get it right the buzz reminds me why I paint.

I don’t know exactly how yet but I think this practice is moving me closer to the kind of visual poetry that I want in my work. There is something emotional about my enduring love of these bright ephemeral images. Apparently trivial moments in time that move you and then are gone. It may not be very cool but it is very me, and if I want to make authentic art they have to be in there somewhere. In the meantime the pile of tiny paintings is growing quietly.