November 6th 2013. New work. New series. New start.

The title of the above painting is 'Brazilian houses, 2'
       Perhaps it is because I have just cleared out my studio, or it may be because I have for many months worked towards an exhibition that is now up and running, but I feel that I am at the beginning of a new chapter...to choose a suitable cliché I feel like the next few months at least ahead of me is a 'blank canvas'.

        For a while I have been collecting images of more industrial or populated areas, as opposed to the landscapes that typically appeal to me. I think what draws me to these scenes/images is the 'realness' of them. What I mean by this is that the buildings have not been put where they are for any aesthetic reasons...all that is there has a purpose. Everything has a reason for being where it is, and the reasons are all based on necessity and usefulness. To me these scenes exude a calmness and beauty which is enhanced all the more by the fact that is was never consciously put there. I choose the word 'scene' on purpose rather that the word 'place', because it is only my outside presence looking in that may see the beauty; the areas, from which I have taken the images, tend to be poor or run down, and I wouldn't be so patronising as to expect anyone living in these areas on a daily basis to necessarily see the beauty (or maybe they could...as I wrote in my earlier post 'everything depends on how it is perceived or who is perceiving it').

       Although the subject of my work has altered, ( for the work I have planned for the coming months ), there still remains a connecting theme; I have always been interested in the notion that something can unintentionally contain beauty. A lot of the places I choose to paint are chosen because of the background or history or memories attached to them. These histories/memories may not always be beautiful, but this is what interests me...the chance of drawing out of something unpleasant, the beautiful.