Painting with Purpose

Every painting I make needs to have a purpose.

That's not the same as having a meaning. It's simply that I can't paint something unless I have a reason for doing so.

Making something to sell is not a reason - though it is an outcome.

Sometimes my purpose is to answer a question: 'what happens if I do X with Y on surface Z?'. It's an enquiry.

Sometimes the purpose is to capture echoes of an emotion, or a piece of music, or passing weather, or birdsong.

Often the purpose is to create and share a sense of calm, and to encourage viewers towards focused attention in this frantic, noisy, distracting world.

At the moment I am painting a lot with mineral pigments - ochres, umbers etc. My main pigment is an Irish Red Ochre which a colleague of mine kindly gave me, ground into artist-grade pigment.

Part of my interest is to discover the possibilities of the materials themselves, but more important is where they come from.

These pigments are of the earth.

They are rock, and I enhance them with inks I have made from soil and flower.

This is where we live.

This is where we cannot live without.

I'm not so naive as to think my paintings can change the world, but these pictures invite me (and perhaps you) to pause and reconnect with the awesome beauty and fragility of this planet - which we so carelessly disregard and abuse.

This is their purpose: a homage, an encouragement, an statement of gratitude, a prayer.

I hope whoever buys them will see that in them too.