Coloursquares and Madurai 2005

The acrylic paintings 'Coloursquares' and 'Madurai' have their origins in second journey to India, to the southern area, in 2002, and my discovery of the wayside shrine. The shrines of particular interest were platforms, usually square with a painted edge containing the sacred area on which were placed various objects, flowers, designs, drawings or simply scratches or stains which bore witness to the activities of the people who honoured them. Above all the shrines were bathed in colour, sometimes intensely brilliant, sometimes earthy, always arresting in their natural richness.

The 'Madurai' paintings are a testament to one of India's greatest shrines. Not the famous and magnificent intricate exterior, but the myriad of intimate places within, where the oil of lamps and bodies connect with the stones at  the heart of the buildings, creating a glow, a patina which echoes the spirit of the pilgrims who visit. This is not simply a place to look at, but a place to embrace and to leave a mark of your having been there.

India Blue 1990 and India Red 1998

India Blue 1990

A journey to India with textile artist friend Caroline Bartlett during the monsoon period of relative coolness, gave me the colour blue: - the blue green glow of oil lamps at night, sun faded yet still brilliant blues of Brahmin houses, the colours intensified by the monsoon rain. The cool blue of dawn travel, a fresh India. These works don't look very cool or very blue I know - more encrusted with age and patina - which was just as exciting as the blue.

However the pearlescent blue of Rajasthan evolved into the suite of prints called ‘Jodhpur Blue’, and they were a bit of a leap in that whilst having worked frequently in a semi abstract manner, these were the first works to become totally abstract. Maybe the early sculpture could be considered abstract. Yes it definitely was, however it soon developed architectural and figurative aspects which took it away from pure abstraction. This was the beginning of a joyous leap into colour. These works formed an exhibition of monoprints and edition silkscreens at Mark Talbot Fine Art in Tetbury Glos.

India Red 1998

Once again, as in Japan,  I found the cultural differences exhilerating, the visual stimulous immense, so when asked to do artwork exploring red my thoughts turned immediately to the magentas and scarlets of Rajasthan, the vibrant activity of the market place where vegetables, spices, brilliant cloths and tiny glittering things were bought and sold. There was noise, shouting, bicycles, horns and cows - and it was all brilliantly coloured. The colour was energy, electricity, as witnessed on my first day, my first view, of India.

The 'Colourworks Red' are an attempt to capture the feelings of these first few days of culture shock and excitement. They are based in landscape and use colour vibrancy and transparent overlays to create space, colour intensity, vigour and mystery.

The screen prints  'India Red', all sit primarily on red as their main underlying base colour, and so the majority of the print surfaces have a uniform starting point on which to build multi layers of transparencies modifying subsequent colours. This red shines through the layers of colours giving a richness otherwise unobtainable.