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make the serious articulation of form in space the main motivation of my paintings,
in opposition to, not reflecting supinely, the times.
Such old guard values were and still are anathema, and I had difficulties because I was
brainwashed into believing that art that is not at the cutting edge and part of the ‘shock
of the new’ is despicable. However I soon realised that all art is of its time even when
the intention is otherwise (Annigoni’s renaissance style Queen portraits that are so
redolent of the fifties) so that to make a conscious effort to relate to the times and for
that to be the main criterion upon which work is judged is absolute stupidity.
The life and still lives strive for that static quality that is so unvalued by those who think
moving images have displaced painting. Canvases of classic china or, in contrast, plastic
containers, handled in a classic loose painterly tradition, white on white, the light falling
across the forms (a concept derided by flat mannerist Euan Uglow as being ‘romantic’)
seek to emanate a timeless unchanging taste of the infinite in contrast to the triviality of
moving images that only capture the passing moment.
This whole very seriously intended oeuvre, unlike other art forms that only express the
times or, with even more vulgarity, make surprise the only motif, attempts, without
pretension, to stand outside time.
