Current Practice
Seascape Refits
Seascape Refits (SSR) is the title of an ongoing series of painted, printed and 3D constructions made up from wood, metal, canvas, plastic and pigment. This is not a new thing. The practice of collecting bits of boats and other coastal flotsam has been compulsive for the past 20 years.
The term ‘Seascape’ refers to the tradition of British sea scape painters as far back as Turner to Nicholson and Scott. I am interested in where this tradition ‘goes’ in a contemporary painting context.
The ‘Refit’, in a literal interpretation, is a term used in the repairing and overhaul of boats and ships. Ports and dockyards being a familiar experience to me as I grew up. In this context however, the ‘refit’ refers to the modular system of differently constructed panels made from different materials that I make and that are interchangeable. These separate responses reflect different aspects of the seascape/landscape. The tradition of this type of painting is refitted when these elements are bought together into a new and often unplanned arrangement. The paintings are made by a continual process of construction, layering and erosion, change and interchange. In this way, the actual process by which the work is developed closely reflects the change and re-working of the subject itself.
Sea scape Refits as a series is ongoing and being developed through both the painted and printed medium.