Clown

The original source material for this painting is from a 1920's film still. It is a response to a prolonged interest in creating beautifully mysterious, strange visual stories of uncertain narrative. It explores the way in which paint can create a space and imbed within it the means for a powerful subjective reading. The images canvas was first pre-prepared with objective marks. The application of the objective sculptural elements, three dimensional layers of poured paint, creates further ambiguity concerning the choices made during the process of painting and planning the work. Different styles of painting language are combined in one piece. Thin glazes building up a luminosity with glowing depth of colour, are situated alongside areas of blurred technique, or thick paint.

Space is created in the painting through the subtle manipulation of cool and warm tones and the contradictory effect of texture on the perceived picture plane. These effects are applied to the fundamentally two dimensional source material.