Page 7 - The Last days of Wilderness catalogue

Alone Oil on linen 45 x 60cms 2010 The construction of Empire oil on linen 36 x 45cms 2009
There are two smaller paintings in this last series of work on Jane Franklin (The last days of Wilderness). Both are
important in terms of both the body of work as a whole and to myself as part of my work
In both these pictures there is a sharp division between two worlds, the figure has seemingly disappeared, yet for me still exists in a much more abstracted form.
There is a sharp division between two worlds – a tension that always exists in my paintings. Here are the worlds of culture and domination expressed in the symbols of power; the flag, the church and the castellated architecture . The natural world is expressed as darkly beautiful, with a sense of the inevitable unfathomless nature of Nature.
One side represents my interest in thick paint and the visual signals it conveys, in the flattened out pictorial surface that belongs to both medieval and contemporary painting, the other side reflects my admiration of the classical and traditional methods of painting which also carries its own specific messages.
To have been able to put these two together so (to me) successfully and within such a (to me) significant body of my work as the Jane Franklin series has been a of great significance.