THE SELF-ISOLATION RESIDENCY 29th AUGUST 2020: DAY 153

Near Black Series, 'Near Black First Grey Void, Impasto & Wash',
 oil & resin on canvas, 30.5 x 152.5 cm.

'Near Black First Grey Void'. Well as I thought it didn't need much more work on this painting, relatively speaking that is. I just had to build up a couple more layers of impasto work on the upper section.

As I mentioned previously these piece are heavily influenced by landscapes, or perhaps more properly skyscapes. These paintings are voids, spaces in the air, sky, space or mind; places to travel or escape to. From that point of view they are also windows or more properly doorways. As I've said previously the size and shape of these paintings is deliberately anthropomorphic, to allow the observer to relate to them as another presence in the space. But they are always anthropomorphic in the same way that a door is, they are a similar size as a human body to allow escape through them.

I'm really excited by how this particular piece has worked out, I knew that it was finished when it was finished, which is often a difficult thing for a painter to know, but it is always a good sign when it does happen, it usually means that something special has occurred. Another good sign is that although this painting is finished I am still very excited by the ideas behind it and so I have already started to prepare another stretcher of the same format, on which to begin painting another piece further exploring these same ideas.