In late 1982, I had started painting in oils. My technique until then had been a mixture of egg tempera, acrylic, and dry pastel. The surface, or support, had been a lightly sized cotton duck. It was an unconventional way of using tempera where the emulsion was allowed to soak into the almost raw cotton and also allowed for broad washes of veil-like colour, which could be uninterrupted in their flatness. Into this fresh field of recently applied egg-oil-emulsion, I would work with dry pastel. But not long after my first show in the London’s West End had come down, I started to paint on linen, sizing and grounding it in a half chalk gesso: in effect a gesso with oil added. My new ground was more suitable for tempera, where the hard chalk meant that I could scumble and wipe, removing and correcting for many hours into the work. The tempera then became an under-painting for oil.
My indeterminate way of drawing for ideas on a layout pad had ceased, as I was now able to work out ideas on the canvas. On a large scale I could carry on in my technique of letting the stuff of my medium and my physical involvement with that stuff throw up an even more indeterminate play of ideas. The indeterminacy became more of a part in the evolution of a work, carrying right through to the later stages.
Please click here or the picture to view more works from this period.