Beyond
This aspect of my work has undergone a complex evolution. Several years ago, during a visit to the Orkney Islands in Scotland, I was struck by features of the rocky coastline. There were many locations in which the cliffs were split by deep fissures, at right-angles to the coast. These cleavages are known locally as geos (in the south-west of Britain they would be called zawns), and I found them visually arresting. The visit yielded a series of landscape studies, both in pastels and acrylic paint, executed in a semi-abstract style that was quite different from anything else I had done.
The interest in cleft rock faces has resurfaced intermittently, in quite different locations. Only recently, however, have I come to realise that there is a common metaphysical theme running through the series. Some illuminated feature is glimpsed through the cleavage in the landform. There is a sense of awareness of something of significance located in a space other than that in which we are now located.
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