CONVERSATION
1998
Egg tempera
92x92cm
ENQUIRE
This is the last painting I did before I left the Black country and headed north to Shetland. This painting forms the backdrop that my subsequent Shetland paintings were built upon in terms of exploring the emotional resonance of colour.
Egg tempera provided a breakthrough in terms of being able to use pure glowing colour in conjunction with relatively complex imagery, which is something I had struggled to do with oil paint because of the slow drying time. Egg tempera is essentially pure pigment mixed with egg yolk painted on to a semi absorbent gesso ground and was introduced to me at the Royal Academy Schools by the artist Julia Dowling a quiet lady from Oxfordshire. The process was used extensively in early Italian religious painting and the use of the medium provided a direct link in terms allowing inspirational painters such as Duccio to speak to me in terms of emulating some of their process.
Using pure pigments for painting helps to nurture a greater sense of the materiality of paint , because every pigment has a different personality . Ready mixed tubes of paint although convenient do not offer that same level of connection to the pigments themselves and whenever possible I’ve tried to make my own paints and printing inks which has helped me in my quest to express pure vibrant colour.
Egg tempera provided a breakthrough in terms of being able to use pure glowing colour in conjunction with relatively complex imagery, which is something I had struggled to do with oil paint because of the slow drying time. Egg tempera is essentially pure pigment mixed with egg yolk painted on to a semi absorbent gesso ground and was introduced to me at the Royal Academy Schools by the artist Julia Dowling a quiet lady from Oxfordshire. The process was used extensively in early Italian religious painting and the use of the medium provided a direct link in terms allowing inspirational painters such as Duccio to speak to me in terms of emulating some of their process.
Using pure pigments for painting helps to nurture a greater sense of the materiality of paint , because every pigment has a different personality . Ready mixed tubes of paint although convenient do not offer that same level of connection to the pigments themselves and whenever possible I’ve tried to make my own paints and printing inks which has helped me in my quest to express pure vibrant colour.