I am a printer-painter. My prints are in series but each work is a monotype, meaning it is a one off print. For the large paintings I work on raw canvas with layers of dye.
Since graduating from Central St Martins in 2001 I have continuously worked in abstract form both on canvas and in print. I am interested in how a shape can become both the positive bounded space and also in moments be relegated to the background and become the negative space of a picture. I have the canvas stretched horizontally and pour black dye directly on to the surface. Rather like a water colourist who lays down initial washes on paper, I repeatedly flood the canvas with different layers of dye, but allow each to dry before applying the next. When the canvas is sufficiently saturated I control the natural flooding properties of the next layers with bounded shapes and clearly defined edges.
Fear of the unbounded happened a long while ago. As a child the nuns told me that when I die I would have first to go to purgatory to make due recompense for my sins. Only then could my purified soul enter heaven where life everlasting awaited me. But the idea of eternity, struck not awe, but horror. It was much later I realized, in order to see any light in all that darkness, a frame would be needed.
I work with untreated canvas and rather like a water colourist who lays down washes of colour, I repeatedly flood the canvas with different layers of dye. When it is sufficiently saturated I impose clearly defined edges and bounded shapes.
My prints are always monotypes using both the bed of an offset litho press as well as an etching press. Again I look to see how much I can contain within the abstract shape.
