I’m restless by nature, obsessive and curious. Sometimes my art is a tool to unlock the secrets of the universe and sometimes it wants to change the world. At other times, just sitting under a tree is enough.

When I did a deep dive into poetry, I found a phrase by Basho:

There is nothing you can see that is not a flower, there is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

Landscapes

When I returned to painting after 15 years away from art, landscapes were a convenient device as I regained my skills and worked out what was important. They took on a life of their own, a vehicle that let me solve puzzles, feel wonder and uncover some obsessions. Each body of work here is accompanied by notes about thinking and process, but the common themes that emerged were the relationship between surface and space, developing a way to use colour that keeps the paintings alive, breathing and changing across the day, and exploring the notion of perception as a series of glimpses, each painting just a fragment that contextualises its peers.

Breakout

When IS started destroying Iraqi history on video, I had my Paul Nash moment, documenting the destruction on a huge, multi-panelled altarpiece. Suddenly I was reacting to current affairs, and a body of work about climate change followed, responding to a placard in a huge Parisian rally. These paintings then gave me the language to pivot to abstraction, about 10 years later than I had expected. The problem was those abstract paintings were immediately complete; everything I’d made before was revealed as prep work and the paintings were born fully resolved, my hands working without me, decisions making themselves. It felt like I’d finished, so I stopped.

Interlude

I diverted into crafts for a few years – less baggage, less risk and more sales. I fell in love with the purity of it all, the lack of pretence. I let material, function and form argue with each other and when they found a compromise-free way to agree with each other the object was finished. It’s been a revelation, but it’s time to come back to painting.

What’s next?

First, a few studies to gain momentum and reworking a couple of paintings that were never quite right.

After that, let’s get ambitious. While I was away I became immersed in Japanese fabrics and early renaissance art and tapestry; the way the picture plane writhes as two different ways of seeing do battle, pattern and space collide and the artist is forced to invent ways to let them co-exist. Then a while back I saw Kandinsky’s early work at the Tate; I was completely unaware of it before but I am certain that the Riding Couple (1906) holds a key. I have an intention, but it’s not yet clear enough to explain. Watch this space.