I have long been interested in the effects of music, and some of these paintings
are an attempt at visual representations of how I experience music. Although clearly
drawing on the likes of Patrick Heron, John Piper and Russian Constructivism, these
abstract paintings owe just as much to the music of twentieth–century composers,
such as Shostakovich, Prokoviev, Walton, Maxwell-Davies and others. Within each piece
is an attempt to develop a total narrative, and to create an impression of the jagged
rhythms, strident dissonances and the vibrant colours in their musical landscapes.
Heavy, stormy sections are followed by dance-like themes or a scurrying scherzo,
and in other places the forms become expansive and languorous.
I have aimed to avoid any hint at all of recognisable objects or familiar shapes,
using a purely abstract language. However, if there are slight echoes of concrete
things, this is no more than when, in music, the sound of a bell might suggest a
tower, or a march hints at military connotations. No particular pieces are being
protrayed here. It is an attempt to bring together these ideas into a narrative,
built up of various themes and patterns, divided into movements, and hinging on certain
points of tension. I hope that the viewer detects some kind of inner logic to these
pieces, in the same way as we try to make sense of a piece of music, which is itself,
after all, merely recurring patterns full of harmonies and contrasts.
I continue to experiment with these forms of expression. I am determined to constrain
all the exuberance of these compositions within the rectangular structures of a frame
and its sub-frames, just as even the wildest of Modernist music is forced to stay
within its bounds. And I am also looking at how a more limited palette might imply
smaller forces, just as the experience of listening to a symphony orchestra is so
very different from hearing a quintet.