Current work
The latest work has involved a much more direct link with the subject, in this case the dock area of the Solway Firth at Port Carlisle.
Painting is done using sand from the Firth as a resist deposited on to the paper, left in the tide to collect what it will. Then the sand covered paper is retrieved from the receded tide and is flooded with water colour paint. The sand is then removed to reveal the marks you see on the untitled piece below.
In "Lamini" and "Section" the Solway sand itself is the "paint" bound with acrylic glue to adhere it to the canvas, the subject is the tiny laminated deposits of tidal sand in the dock area increased massively in scale.
The last two pieces on this page are large water colour paintings but they are in fact collaged from several different pieces of paintings done specifically to use in the collage. Tiny thin strips of paper are mounted together in close proximity to portray the delicate strata of sand seen across the Solway when the tide is ebbing. Gaps are left between strips so that there is ambiguity between what is solid or painted and what is not-which is sand and which is water.
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Untitled watercolour and sand on paper 113x160cm 2007
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Lamini sand and PVA on canvas 183cm x 128cm 2007
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Section Sand and PVA on canvas 183 x 128 cm. 2007
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Layer Joiner collaged water colour 168 x 110 cm. 2007
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shoal plane collaged watercolour 168x 60 cm. 2007
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