Egg tempera paintings – Black Country
These paintings mark the beginnings of my own spiritual searching amongst the concrete, the canals, the pollution and the factories of the black country.
I was inspired by the 13th century Italian Sienese painters Lorenzetti, Sassetta, Simone Martini and, Duccio who created complex narratives, set in imaginative conceptions od space using glowing vibrant colours.
It is this fusion of contrasting influences from the darkness difficulties arising from a landscape and culture that is dominated by heavy industry and the delicate translucent colours of egg tempura but allows the light to pass through like a stained-glass window that I was exploring in this work.
Egg tempera painting uses thin layers of raw pigment mixed with egg yolk applied to a semi absorbent gesso ground on board
This search for pure vibrant colour and a spiritual conception of the world amongst the polluted pillaged and raped landscape of the Black Country is the subject of these paintings which mark the beginning of me starting to find my voice as a painter. All these works are autobiographical, explorations of both the inner and outer world.