home

   new work

   available

   archives

   biography

   press

   catalogues new


   kindertotentanz

   contact

I love the marvellous changeable light down by the water in Vancouver. The large freighters and container ships at anchor offshore remind me of the monasteries of Meteroa in Northern Greece: elaborate, massive and perched, inaccessible, in a place apart. The ether on which they drift, the water of the inlet, shifts color and temperament continuously. Beyond and above the ships and sea stands the magnificent amphitheatre of mountains.

The mountains, too, are constantly in flux. Here they loom and brood, there they retire and remain shuttered, further on they buck and scowl at the blustering wind. Fog, rain, clouds of all shapes and moods and colours, sunsets, starry nights, mists and vapours; I love to paint all the changing patterns and textures here by the sea.

Over the past five years I have worked on this series in oils and acrylics. These works are slow in production; several I have worked on for almost four years. They are an exploration of surface and texture; of layers hidden, revealed, and then shrouded again; of colours changing and echoing over the image. I begin with an uncluttered composition; the sea, a ship, a bent pine branch and the mountains; I allow the paint to dictate the rest.