Close up leaves

the trouble with painting today

Painting is processing, recording and re-presenting. Its never dead just re-considered. Historically the role of painting has evolved as technological advances expand what painting can be; from record to personal expression to questioning materiality.

Part of the trouble with painting is it can be so loaded with the weight of history and critique that it can be hard to start. Recently I've been drawing so much more than painting that the drawing has become the work rather than the preparation for painting. But then using inks and watercolours uses brushes; it doesn't feel like painting usually does but then it doesn't feel like drawing.

The two works I've chosen to submit show either side of this; one the the most recent oil paintings I completed and a drawing-painting. They're both about looking, spending time with the object, fixing and considering. Part of a thinking process. The trouble is, it isn't always what you expect, either as the maker or the viewer but then isn't that why we keep returning? To challenge and be challenged; to grapple and push and fail and try again. The trouble is you can't help coming back.