Painting

My practice explores the shared language of grid-based painting, music and weaving, especially notions of rhythm, counterpoint and shimmer. A fluctuating figure/ground relationship creates visual shimmer or what Bridget Riley calls ‘a gentle kind of emerging and receding syncopation’. Pattern and colour, contrasts of opacity and transparency all contribute to the interplay of layers and visual polyphony.

The way I paint is cumulative and echoes the construction of a piece of music or woven textile in that each unit is painted individually. Like a music note or weft pick, each unit is an essential part of the whole. For me, this measured way of working is meditative and results in soft geometric forms often found in weaving. Even a basic grid provides many choices – some forms remain dormant in one layer only to be emphasised in the next. This balancing of exactness and order, softness and irregularity is an ongoing fascination. Strict structures such as a grid or fugue can easily withstand some inaccuracies or irregularities, be they tactical or accidental. Precise structures and processes, rather than being restrictive, can act as a container that facilitates and stimulates improvisation.

‘I learned more from painters than I learned from composers.’
- Morton Feldman

‘Music is the ultimate teacher.’
- Wassily Kandinsky