River Work
I live with my family in a forested valley in California, next to a river that reminds me of my native Wales. Walking outside each day, I fill sketchbooks with observations of the interplay of light and shadow, cycles of growth and decay, life and death. Duality has been a recurring theme since my student days, and reconciliation appears to be the journey of my life’s work.
Using classical principals of design to divide pictorial spaces, symbolic patterns emerge. Understanding interconnectivity in scientific terms allows freedom to explore what the senses perceive. The intellectual foundation provides a sanctuary for instinctual responsiveness. Conscious forgetting. Curious emptiness.
Some canvases are root five rectangles, which provide a cathedral-like space without a fixed perspective to allow the viewer to look up and down, or side to side. Five is significant as a growth factor, found in spirals, stars, hands, flowers and the Golden Ratio.
Other canvases are a more traditional shape, invisibly divided by a harmonic armature which is the pictorial counterpart to the musical scale. Sound and vision merge in geometric symbolism, telling a story using trees, shafts of light, riverbanks, shadows and spaces.
Responsive outdoor painting, balanced with carefully constructed studio work allows an evolving creative process that feels both safe and daring. The dynamic balance is never static, like life, and the journey continues.
