Standing on the edge, looking down.

So here i am now, standing back and looking at my painting...when brett whiteley painted "alchemy",he said there were points where he began to question his sanity. I think I understand, to a degree, what he meant. The abstract painting process to me is a constant puzzle, a chess game- i am always working to move ahead and to find the next handhold as I ascend the mountain that is my painting. The research that I do before and during a painting is integral to my work and provides me with the resources that i need to continue to build the painting. One of my original ideas for the structural basis for my paintings comes from the International Style of Architecture- One of the foundations of this style is the principle that the building has an internal support structure of evenly space columns which do all the load bearing leaving the internal space open plan with the ability to divide the space with walls in virtually any configuration due to the fact that they have no structural role...the external walls are also freed of any load bearing also, meaning that you can pretty much hang whatever you like on the outside of the building- hence the towers of glass which are so common today. My painting style works in a similar manner, I lay down an internal structure which then allows me to put whatever I like over the top of it. I have been playing with these ideas for quite some time and this is the first time i have applied it to a surface this big. I too have found myself standing in front of it, trying to figure out if I am actually losing my mind. One big difference is having the painting in a bigger area where I can actually stand at distance and really get a sense of where the painting is going- you can see this when you look at the pics. So, here before you is a step by step breakdown of the evolution of my big painting...it is still in progress and is moving toward completion but looking at these photos in sequence you can really get a sense of it coming alive.

This is where the painting is right now. Prior to putting on the last coat of white, i had begun to feel a little lost and despondent- that was when the painting was in its second to last photo state. Then on friday, I read and re read picasso, rauschenberg and perhaps the one painter whose writing has continually spurred me on whe Ive been feeling down- Mark Rothko, in paticular his quote that says- "The most important tool an artist fashions through constant practice is faith in his ability to produce miracles when they needed." So Friday, I required a miracle and following some stretching and some meditative moments, considering the painting, i loaded my brush and produced one.