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I began the painting as I always do, in search of new aesthetics or what
I like to call "new life". On this occasion however, I was in
search of more. I felt the need to create a work of greater substance,
greater challenge. I began to realise that all the previous works were
somehow stepping stones towards this one, a process you can't contrive,
you can only do what you do: search. Gradually as the triptych form was realised I began to understand that this painting was in search of RS Thomas but I didn't know all the questions I was setting myself and how I would realise the answers. Many months went by when I couldn't look at the painting never mind do anything to it. Reading more of rs thomas and walking those places he walked in the Welsh mountains seemed the only way forward but it doesn't tell you how to paint, it can only fill you with an insight, an understanding, an energy. Even within the last few days of its completion I was ready to scrap it, rip it up, throw it away as a contrived intervention. |
