1st Quarter III

Above the Oxo Tower

Quayside I

For a while now my cityscape paintings have been dominated by heavy, bold lines. In my new series of paintings, I've attempted to reduce the heavy lines, to not be controlled by it. And where the lines become broken and less fussy, there's a more interesting play between the blocks of colour.

Concrete Block

There is mean't to be lots of blocks of varying sizes, but I had to leave it at just one. It's relatively large and heavy, and took alot of bags of concrete to make, so space in the studio would be an issue. But it doesn't work aswell by itself. I was too impatient to make it hollow, and so it's a solid block. I underestimated the amount of concrete I would need to fill the space, and completely ran out. So to bulk it up I filled it with 2 tins of tomato soup! Not for any Warhol reason, it was the only thing in the studio that I didn't mind loosing in a giant block of concrete. At least it's always there for an emergency if I'm ever a starving artist, I can always crack it open and have a feed!

Quarry I

I've always had a fascination with opencast mines and quarries. I grew up near several in Wales, which I explored as a child. There's something amazing about the manmade marks made to a landscape on such a huge scale, almost like an inverted sculpture or building. I love the 'Manufactured Landscape' photography of Edward Burtynsky, and recently came across a book of his on Quarries.
This wasen't directly in response to this book, but more in response to wanting to dig out the contents of a plaster block (with concrete on the bottom). I'm obsessed with digging holes in the sand whenever I go to the beach, and this was similar in some way.

Newcastle VI

I've been away from the blog for a while. It's about time I uploaded some images of the paintings and sculptures I've been up to.