I paint from life- always from life. My friends, classmates, family. People I want to ‘keep’, ‘archive’, ‘treasure’. An authentic depiction only achievable in a relaxed environment; the sitter absorbed in an activity so I can observe. They bring books, laptops music to my studio for a couple of hours. By the end of this single sitting I hope to capture them- only then am I satisfied. I admire the reflective stillness in Gwen John’s work and my interests lie in a period of history running up to, during and after impressionism. Later, I analyse my paintings and deconstruct them into multi-layer screen-prints. Sometimes I use the age of the sitter to decide on the number of colours and thus separations of the print. These prints can be assembled into artists’ books documenting the process of their creation. The books are titled with the sitters name and a previous Glasgow School of Art student who shares a similarity in name or address. The titles reference people not usually remembered and those I wish to document. The process starts and ends with reading. In the painting the sitter reads and eventually the viewer also is invited to reflect in a similar way- by engaging with my paintings or by reading my books.

 

The past is thus much more than what has happened, much more than that which happens to have survived. We create the past of our own time merely by being; we fashion for ourselves that which we regard as the past; and we pre-empt in some degree that past of the future by what we preserve and by what we destroy now.[1]

 

My aim is to create a relaxing, reflective space in a busy increasingly digital word.

 

 

 

[1] Lowenthal, David and Binney, Marcus; Our Past Before us Why do we save it? (Temple Smith, London: 1981) p67