The desire and grasp ability of being an artist was there at a very young age as it’s been my good fortune to have had a gifted amateur artist for a father and two talented older brothers to chase.
As a result of preparatory drawings developing beyond their purpose into finished works, I began drawing directly on unprimed canvas with graphite and currently am using colored pencils and ink wash on canvas. This is an approach that fuses painting and drawing into a single process. The materials I use elect the heavy weave of the canvas to be the dominant, but impersonal, unifying mark throughout each work. This aspect of the images results in an even distillation of positive and negative space and renders a particulate profile to all.
These works present what is recalled in the mind’s eye, aspiring to hold the viewers’ attention for reasons beyond what is being depicted. In this way, I hope meaning will emerge from the viewers’ own impressions, with vision less cluttered by what we think we know.
‘Still life with Half Moon’ is an example of my current direction – still-life’s and cityscape ; arrangements of mundane objects and man-made structures reference each other as they are defined or contained by architecture. More generally, I try to draw the commonplace to an uncommon state by stressing issues of balance, harmony, order and calm.
- Drawing is the art of being able to leave an accurate record of the experience of what one doesn't know. A great drawer is either confirming beautifully what is commonplace or probing authoritatively the unknown.' - Brett Whiteley
