Following the Digital Explorers: Discovery exhibition at Metropolitan Works in February – March 2009, in which I showed the 3D nylon print Fallen Leaves, I continued with the motif to produce a number of new works on paper and canvas many of which were included in my exhibition Time Passages at the Bigger Picture Gallery, London.
Fallen Leaves 3D nylon print 47x47x12cms Photograph Pelle Crepin
Walking my dog through Crystal Palace Park in all seasons provided unexpected inspiration and a continuation of the fallen leaves theme. The daily observation of nature’s seasonal mark-making and surface layering on small areas of ground underfoot became routine. The passage of time observed in these small natural palimpsests informed larger compositions built up through an iterative process of staining and layering the canvas.
Floating 92x117cms Oil on linen
Reflection 100x140cms Oil on canvas
In a new departure, using the traditional monoprint process as a starting point, and working with master printer Andrew Turnbull at the Digital Print Studio in London I made a number of digital ink prints on archive painter. I tried a number of approaches, from direct scanning of a monoprint, to a digitally enhanced version that was then overlaid with block printing. Combining traditional printmaking methods with altogether new ones, on quality papers that enhance the rich 8 colour process, opens up new avenues for exploration.
Fallen Leaves 27x38cms Inkjet and blockprint
Nightfall 27x34cms Inkjet print
I included some earlier works in this exhibition to illustrate the long-held interest in observing the record of time passing on both natural and man-made surfaces. The earliest show an interest in the rusting hulk of a ship serving as a metaphor for the burnt Australian landscape and more subject approaches deal with an imagined primordial landscape.
Maheno Wreck II Oil on paper on canvas 75x108cms
Above and Below 170x74cms Oil on panel
The more recent works are again based on direct observation; of landscape surfaces sculpted by the weather, and of how the distressed surfaces of once pristine Russian Icons can present an altered aesthetic to the contemporary eye.
Halo 27×38.5cms Inkjet print