The Early Paintings 1982-1986

(angular shaped acrylic canvases) 

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From 1980 to 1981, I was experimenting with layered processes of pouring colour on colour and drying the paint to cause separations on the paint surface, allowing the layers to show through each other.    I had made a series of works with the so-called crazed fissures by pouring clear puddles over broom-screened grounds, which were shown at the Hett Gallery in Edmonton.

In 1982, I discovered a way to cause fissures to occur all over the surface, which allowed for a strong colour contrast with an all-over drawing and surface.    This was the 'Matisse/Monet' or 'Noland/Poons' notion that I had been seeking since I first saw the works of Larry Poons in 1974.

This discovery offered a new way of drawing; with an all-over colour contrast and an 'open' painting process of layered compositions, and colour contrasts without the inherent problems of muddying in the colour that I had experienced in other in situ ways of working.

This all-over layered and poured process permitted for the selecting of compositions from, as it were 'the inside out'.    The final shape of the painting being determined by selecting from the seen images in the composed painted formations.

1982 was a breakthrough year for me - unleashing an expressive range of possibilities for picture making that has not since ended.