Botanical Series

I first conceived of my botanical series in 2004, it stemmed from an interest in seventeenth-century European still life painting.  My early intention for this work was not to simply mimic the realism, symbolism and illusionist methods that were the major proponent of the Dutch still life masters but to use them as a place of departure in order to create my own more personal raison d’etre.  

My “flowers” from the outset were meant to channel  the personal experience/ thoughts and memories. My intention was for the work to possess a secret symbolism, a private vanitas reflecting my state of mind at the time of creation which was elusive, mysterious, and intimate and  to do means of style and painterly gesture. A kind of self portrait, 

My botanicals have evolved to have an inherent duality, on one hand  they can be viewed as ornamental,/decorative they are rendered as powerful, dramatic and at times fragile. They are confused between joy and pleasure or melancholia and grief.  The Flowers act out like characters in an improv, one moment sensitive, calm even serene and the next unyielding and forceful.  

While my flowers are deliberate in line, colour  they are also instinctive and intuitive in execution.  My process has changed considerably over time, more often the flowers and foliage are drawn more from memory and any photographic references are abandoned in the early stages. The work evolves into abstract brush strokes that merge into emotional introspective dramas. 

One of my preferred materials to paint on is mylar paper. It is like vellum but is a plastic thus has a smooth texture. It is a very fast and slippery to work on. The paper has a beautiful dual appearance , it simultaneously both translucent and opaque at once. This seemingly conflicting nature produces an ephemeral quality that I love working with.  It is also a very unforgiving material.  Paint impressions and line drawn once made are difficult to remove and they remain to reveal my process. This is for me the beautiful peculiarity of the paper.  Marks becomes something permanent, hard to erase, they therefore develop a history  and the work has a memory.

I like begin a new series with a working title, a nickname, often tinged with irony or humour.  My botanicals have thus matured into what I now refer to as the Still Series.  Full of movement, this work can become frenetic. Now stillness does not evoke the quiet record of what once was but becomes a play on words.  Still is now a metaphor and the title is no longer associated with the genre but reflects the cathartic nature of my process. The physical action of making the work becomes  experience visualized.  The conflicts of the mind by being exposed then become reflective evoking a stillness within me and anxiety dissolves into meditative concentration. Stillness also sigests the bigger picture as the series has begun to mirror the state and struggle of nature and climate change in our contemporary landscape.