Studio Practice: Studio Painting 2025: Pour, Rhythm and Kerkannah

Studio painting for this year acted as a consolidation of the work that followed the China residencies 2023/4. In 2025, there were several objectives. Firstly to create a series of small to mid sized paintings, as all those of 2024 were large scale on canvas and paper, planned for the exhibition at the large spaces at Oriel Môn. With two exhibitions at the Appleby Gallery in November and the Turner House in April 2026, smaller and mid sized paintings would be required. Another objective was a further exploration of the hands free application of paint and increased liquidity and fluidity of paint in relation to current work. Fluid and poured application has been used in recent work but not as a primary focus of composition.

The year began with a drawing series. I find it is always a good way to commence the year as a series of exploratory work; it is method used on location in residency situations and rather than acting as a plan or design for later work, it is more a setting of the mind, at the same time clearing the decks, familiarising the studio environment after the winter break and setting a working method focused on production, process and making rather than any contemplative preliminary thinking - the process of doing sets the pace.

As part of a recent series these monochrome works consider a spatial configuraion of marks and fluid applicaion of paints and mediums. I consider these primarily as drawings because they are concerned with line and positioned separately to the colour work, but as made with paint, they must be identified as paintngs. I think this is one duality of the series with the other being the spontaneous application and calligraphic like gesture that through the method of applicaYon appear mixed; perhaps a duality of purpose.

The kind of gesture I am concerned with is fluid, spontaneous and fleeting. The movement instinctive and unconscious; whilst making one’s thinking is deliberately abstracted so that intention is absent and response unguided in a cerebral way. The state is somewhere else. Getting to this point or place takes time and concentration, not just within a day but over the duration of making, a week or two.

Painting started in early April with preparation of three large vertical paper supports, one paper support designed for two smaller paper based paintings (rather than using the full sheet of paper), two larger canvases and several canvases at under one metre square with a number of very small canvases. This was a conscious decision to make smaller works as outlined above. One of the larger works was a reworking over an existing started but not finished, oil painting. I applied one gesso to this painting and some painting was carried out during this session but the result was heavy looking and I rejected the canvas. My focus during this year was on the small to mid range works.

Pechina and Tuyen Lam in progress

Zapillo and Naiyang in progress

The main process development for this year was the paint application by pouring. This seemed a priority to apply colour without hand, brush and gestural movement. Colour applied directly onto the surface to emphasise the distance between paint and surface.In terms of application the paint operates seemingly on its own terms. Colour can flow and mix on the canvas surface and once applied, moved and mixed by tilting and revolving the support )in this case, the boards on which paper is stretched). I also applied this process to the two smaller works on paper, considering the reduction of area and adjusting the application accordingly. this meant reducing the height of pour and quantity of paint.
Detail of Mekong in progress

Bach Dang in progress

Detail of Dong Khoi in progress

In addition to this pouring element I developed the hand applied painting to identify an application begun in 2024. Calling the pictorial elements 'rhythms' where a column or row of blocked colour applied by flat brush would traverse a section of the painting. They are calligraphic in form but not of the grand gesture type as so evident in the work of 2024. Instead, these are quiet and more 'sub plot' yet have a feel being frieze like and calligraphic perhaps referencing architectural feature, like text on a parapet or a column on a pillar around a doorway. They act as unifiers in a pictorial way. As always colour is the main driving force (as in all my painting) and their consistency bridges areas of differing paces across the painting. They feature across all canvases, very small to very large. As always seems to be the case, the larger paintings lead the way in the development of these rhythms and how they work with and around, even against other pictorial elements.

These rhythms therefore, are also a feature of the new small canvases. The first small paintings since the Morocco series of 2023, small works here were developed with a greater range of the colour paint handling and represent the first paintings made since China back in the studio, on this scale. Working on the floor (that seems to be signature way of working, rarely using the easel, the giant vertical board on the east side of the studio) colour flowed across these and I am aware that the rhythm and flowing linear element works in contrast and this is something to be developed into 2026.

Penang No.1 23 x 30 cm

Penang No.4 23 x 30 cm

Worked progressed steadily and working on the small to mid sized paintings presented issues of making that I worked hard to resolve. At times I felt they were too conscious in the method and at these moments one has to back off and re-engage with the painting. For me as soon as consciousness enters the arena the process has been compromised. However four of the paintings were well resolved and I relished working on this size of canvas again. Always setting myself challenges in the studio, the scale of the painting in terms of pictorial element, area, colour and composition feeds into ones overall methodology.

Pechina 79 x 59 cm acrylic on canvas

Zapillo 73 x 59 cm and Tuyen Lam 86 x 64 cm

Naiyang 82 x 43 cm acrylic on canvas (right)

In November I held a solo exhibition at the Appleby Gallery, Romford, East London. The exhibition featured the new work made this year and included some previous 2023 and 2024 paintings. I really liked exhibiting in this gallery as the work seemed to allocate well to the room dimension. Well lit with both natural and good electric light, colour reverberated around the spaces of the one wooden floored, high ceilinged, gallery.

Colourscapes at Appleby Gallery November 2025. Dong Khoi (left) Bach Dang and Mekong. Each 212 x 114 cm acrylic on paper 2025

One international symposium was undertaken. 'The World Paints Kerkannah' took place on the island of Kerkannah, Tunisia. This was an intensive and quite short large group symposium comprising artists from Tunisia and international artists. Located close to the Borj el Hsar Fortress site, the historic location provided a rich and atmospheric setting, a Phoenician port, the sea with seemingly constant strong current.