What do you paint ?
....I find branches, brambles, pieces of wreckage on the beach, I also find pieces of tree trunks which later inspire me. I take macro photos. Macro photo prints enter into my paintings, not by being copied but once my mind has thought about them and reworked them. I record what I have seen, such as landscapes viewed from planes. Those from the war of course, and others from throughout my life, like numerous shots of Alaska from ten kilometres of altitude. And many years later in my canvases, I rediscover certain landscapes, a lake, a river, a valley. I've drawn estuaries, the inland sea. Sometimes I'm asked what all that represents, so I reply, nature. In reality what I paint is space, time, music, poetry, the wind…
How do you work ?
....I start by creating outlines in small formats. Often I use material such as bits of string to give rhythm to the future composition. Once the outline is done, I work with colour which gives the shapes a certain poetry, a music, a spirituality. The work with colour is essential, it's this stage which gives soul to the canvas. I paint on the flat then like many Japanese painters my thoughts come to me while working, and are added to the first two stages (outline and colour). Once the canvas has dried I use sand paper to make earlier layers reappear… (to continue interview click below right)
