I have been looking back over my work as I am having an exhibition in July which will include a selection of paintings done over the last 8 years (Edmund gallery, Angel Hill, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 11 – 16 July 2015). It is also the 10th anniversary of the completion of the Cathedral’s Millennium Tower and so the exhibition extends into the Cathedral itself with a display of some of the work that I did as project artist.
It is at times like this, when I see a collection of my work together, that I can see the paths that I may have taken and I can mull over the reasons that I may have taken them.
How did I go from those architectural paintings to the still life paintings that I am doing now? How did the one inform the other? Surely it must have something to do with scrutinising all those indispensable bits and pieces that came together to make the Tower. Did this lead me on to scrutinise ordinary things from everyday life – paint brushes, scissors, screws, keys, nails – with their ‘wear and tear’ and multiple variations? And why do I paint these everyday objects in lines like specimens laid out for inspection? I am sure that it has something to do with the landscape of East Anglia – flat, open, honest and un-pampered with its rows of regimental trees planted to break the winds and its straight dykes dug to drain the land. I feel as if I have never really stopped painting the landscape (and I haven’t) even when I am painting still life.
