2003
I am currently offering up some of my older important artworks. Some have never been shown, while others have been in exhibitions in Australia and overseas and may have writing and labels for provenance history on the back.
A large painting built through accumulated layers of oil paint, cloth and tile grout, Redfire — A Day developed slowly over seven months. Red dominates the surface, emerging through layers of colour, texture and abrasion, while fragments of earlier paintings remain concealed beneath the final surface.
The words A Day emerged within the painting as the layers developed, becoming both a mark and a point of tension within the work. What is visible is only the outer surface. Beneath it are earlier states of the painting—layers covered, altered and transformed. The surface becomes a kind of casing, holding what came before while allowing only traces to remain visible.
The painting is concerned with accumulation, concealment and transformation: what is buried, what survives, and what continues to exist beneath the surface.
Connections
The first layer of Redfire — A Day was begun before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and evolved alongside the unfolding events. Cloth, oil paint, predominantly red, and tile grout were worked into the canvas to build a textured surface.
After several days, a large A emerged. Over the following weeks it developed into A Day, while layers of colour and material were added, covered, scraped back and transformed.
The painting took seven months to resolve. The process became the work itself—each layer concealing traces of what came before. The events unfolding in Iraq became part of the atmosphere of the painting, holding a range of emotions within its many layers without directly depicting them.
An extraordinary coincidence occurred when the invasion began: the first US military action was referred to as “A Day”—words that had appeared on the canvas weeks earlier.
What remains on the surface is therefore only one layer of a much larger history. Beneath it are many earlier states of the painting, concealed within the final surface.
2003
I am currently offering up some of my older important artworks. Some have never been shown, while others have been in exhibitions in Australia and overseas and may have writing and labels for provenance history on the back.
A large painting built through accumulated layers of oil paint, cloth and tile grout, Redfire — A Day developed slowly over seven months. Red dominates the surface, emerging through layers of colour, texture and abrasion, while fragments of earlier paintings remain concealed beneath the final surface.
The words A Day emerged within the painting as the layers developed, becoming both a mark and a point of tension within the work. What is visible is only the outer surface. Beneath it are earlier states of the painting—layers covered, altered and transformed. The surface becomes a kind of casing, holding what came before while allowing only traces to remain visible.
The painting is concerned with accumulation, concealment and transformation: what is buried, what survives, and what continues to exist beneath the surface.
Connections
The first layer of Redfire — A Day was begun before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and evolved alongside the unfolding events. Cloth, oil paint, predominantly red, and tile grout were worked into the canvas to build a textured surface.
After several days, a large A emerged. Over the following weeks it developed into A Day, while layers of colour and material were added, covered, scraped back and transformed.
The painting took seven months to resolve. The process became the work itself—each layer concealing traces of what came before. The events unfolding in Iraq became part of the atmosphere of the painting, holding a range of emotions within its many layers without directly depicting them.
An extraordinary coincidence occurred when the invasion began: the first US military action was referred to as “A Day”—words that had appeared on the canvas weeks earlier.
What remains on the surface is therefore only one layer of a much larger history. Beneath it are many earlier states of the painting, concealed within the final surface.
