Small Experiments in Colour 15-18

The origins of these works came from a series I did for St Katharine Docks exploring the history of the docks as a trading centre, and I started using indigo as a pigment in oil based media.  I became fascinated by the way in which the pigment interacted with the media not just in terms of glossiness or matt effect but also in terms of luminosity and even perception of colour. Towards the end of 2016, I branched out into other evocative pigments, pigments that had a relevant place in the history of people and trade, ochres the oldest pigment known to have been used for pure mark making purposes; which can be found in cave paintings across the globe:  Chromium oxide a pigment developed during the industrial revolution for use in the ceramics industry and first used as a painting pigment by Turner; its special quality being opacity: Viridian a less opaque darker relative of chromium oxide famed for its lack of toxicity which can be contrasted in every sense with cadmium famed for the opposite, and a very few others.   In these works, I use a very limited palette to create a sense of three dimensional space on a small 2 dimensional surface using the minimum of suggestive marks.   The intention is to draw you in, to create spaces for lost memories, both personal and those related to trade.  These works form part of the practical research that makes the backbone to several series of larger works entitled: The Lost Girl series centred around the experience of dementia within the context of a cultural diaspora; the Wine Dark Sea series which create links between contemporary economic-political events and the classical Aegean; the Space in Between series which are an invitation to get a bit lost and remember.