Free Time

Sometimes I feel a slight sense of claustrophobia with my work. I find it hard to 'free up' at times and often spend far too many minutes, hours, even days on the finer details. I sometimes make a mark that is loose and flowing and will be quite pleased with it, but too often I cannot resist the urge to re-work it and then re-work it some more.

After leaving high school, at the tender age of 15, I worked as a graphic designer for a number of years. I also spent many years drawing with pencil and in pen and ink. The works were all of a realist nature and were highly rendered with incredible attention to detail.

When I first began painting I held the brush the same way I held a pencil or pen; which was with such intensity that it has caused a very distinct curve in the middle finger of my right hand. It bends to the right. For me painting was initially like drawing with a brush.

As a painter, I was once a little concerned about the graphic nature, (as in style not content), of my work, thinking it perhaps closer to graphic design or illustration rather than painting. I learnt to embrace it however, as it is the way I paint. Many of my artistic influences happen to be of a graphic or illustrative nature and be it painters or illustrators they are all artists.

Every now and then however I do like to paint a number of works on paper and attempt to loosen my grip and relax my attention to detail. Many of these works will never make it to one of my exhibitions but they are vital to me in the studio and sometimes even assist my 'sense of sane'.