When I paint these pictures I am aware of the materiality of them; the paint, the paper, colours, textures. They come intuitively and instinctively from within. A process of letting go and opening up.
Then come all the decisions about how to get the thing right. Many layers and many changes, much work over lengths of time. Sometimes a slow and gentle building of surfaces, patiently piecing fragments together, sometimes vehemently tearing away. They carry weight and light, surface texture and illusion, a reverence for the elements, the force and the form of nature, a world of contrasts and tensions; images of time and space. What becomes evident later is that somehow contained within these pictures is the 'spirit' or 'essence' of a place or experience. The tissue paper in particular seems, by it's rich surface texture and movement contrasting with its diaphonous and ethereal effect, to contain elements of flesh and spirit. images ©copyright Gail Decordova 1968
