artforinteriors

LABYRINTH

Acrylic paint, gold powder, charcoal and collage on canvas, 100 x 120 x 4 cm

In January I had a frightening experience in a blown down plantation of Corsican pine – the further I got into it the more difficult it became to get out again, and this has something to do with that.

the labyrinth listens in the dark
what coat I wear to lie down
in the fern bed
& the needle leaves –

RIVER DEEP

Acrylic, charcoal and paper on cradled panel, 76 x 76 x 2 cm, 2022.

I’d been writing a poem in an online workshop that ended up being about the watermill on the river Tas, in the village I lived in as a child. We used to catch minnows and sticklebacks in the gravel shallows of the leat, and paddle through the culvert tunnels. The mill waterwheels had gone, but the river went down through the tail race in a scary fast oily way, through the metal bars, and under the wooden building of the mill. From inside you could see the water, and the road through the loose boards. This painting references all that, with words carved into the paint.