2023 - Latest Works for Precision|Primitive

After working primarily in monochrome for the last two years, I decided it was time to re-introduce some colour.

I still drew an image by slathering a mixture of ash and moulding paste on the substrate, then scoring the surface. Once it dried, I then started experimenting with acrylic paints. The results are still pleasingly textural and ‘primitive’, but the colour adds a new dimension to the work.

The pink and salmon flesh tones really pop against the grey backgrounds and – along with some slightly off-kilter subject matter (masked nudes, miniature horses, upside-down figures) – add to a sense of woozy surrealism.

Brought to Books

I’ve had some old hardback book covers lying around for years, but never really known what to do with them. As often happens, inspiration struck out of the blue and I launched into them. I’ve kept the figurative theme, and again my nudes are often masked.

The idea of incorporating skulls came after seeing a fantastic painting of one by Antoni Tapies. Typically, his is barely more than a smear, a suggestion of a skull, but it really spoke to me. Apart from being a powerful symbol of mortality, they’re also unspeakable fun to paint.

In some cases, I’ve incorporated the actual book cover and binding, so the colourful design becomes wallpaper, a natural backdrop for my interior scene. Call me lazy, if you like. I prefer to think of it as ‘optimizing my materials.’

2022 - The Tito Bustillo Works 

In 2019, a chance visit to Tito Bustillo Cave on Spain’s northern coast sparked an unexpected fire in me, resulting in these latest works on both paper and board. 

Between 20 000 and 10 000 years ago the rock walls of Tito Bustillo Cave were a huge canvas. The galleries are covered in countless animals, and handprints so reminiscent of Australia’s own ancient Indigenous artists. One cavern, known as The Chamber of Vulvas, boasts crude renderings of female genitalia, which are thought to be fertility symbols. 

This cave art had a profound effect on me, one which I honestly struggle to explain fully. I suppose it was seeing evidence of that natural human urge – to make a mark. To have an artist speak to you across the vast chasm of time was deeply moving. Imagining these people, struggling to survive day-to-day but nevertheless driven to draw, paint and carve – by the poor light of a single guttering flame, perhaps – was intensely humbling. 

The Tito Bustillo works are all about simplicity, stripping back. In some instances, I’ve used ash and moulding paste to build my own ‘cave walls’, which I scrawl on and etch into, developing my own visual language.