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'Folded paper structures with multiple light sources' is the look that I am going for in my current work.
I've been drawing + painting as far back as I can remember but from about the age of ten (1980) I started noticing how paintings with curved/rounded subjects like apples,oranges or portraits looked flatter and less three dimensional than angular subjects with hard edges like tables,chairs and boxes. Detail added to paintings also often made the image lose depth too. These concepts really intrigued me and a few years later at art college (1990's) this became the main focus in my work figuring out how to create or preserve a sense of depth and structure in a two dimensional image. After a lot of sketchbook r&d, eventually I developed a geometric style (1993) where everything appeared as boxlike or angled planes + used a narrow isometric perspective that helped everything link together nicely. Constantly updating this theme, I made various breakthroughs such as (2008) when I began opening up or 'unfolding' these closed box shapes. This resulted in a more delicate 'folded paper' look that I preferred. Then I added patterns,logos + labels to my painting get a more printed paper look and the following year switched entirely to mixed media for a while, using paper instead of paint. A maths theory 'combinatorics' in a science journal at the time (2010) then got me thinking in entirely new ways about composition and took my work another step closer to abstraction. Lighting had always fascinated me especially from artificial sources like shop fronts, traffic signals or giant led screens. As I moved away from observational themes (2012) though I no longer had a reference point to study and copy from. So I decided to treat lighting with the same thought process as when I was creating CG animation work a few years prior to my painting. This involved thinking about the physics of lighting a lot more, using concepts like global illumination, radiosity, caustic lighting, light/colour bounce, ray traced shadows, volumetric lighting + how certain materials reacted to lighting too especially translucency...all these things that I loved learning about in CG and began transferring across to my painting, so that the canvas appeared as if it had 'multiple light sources'. Discovering kirigami (2015) helped me figure out the 'cutout shapes' idea which resolved some depth/balance issues by being able to see through foreground shapes to other layers in the background. 'Paired shapes' (2019) was another step that made compositions easier to read + appear more 'modular' as if they were assembled from a kit which I liked. (2025) I began working on new volumetric lighting ideas placing cloud formations among these folded paper structures. (2026) More interest in recycled packaging + mixing with paper sculptures + a lot more sketchbook work testing out new compositions and looking at symmetry/asymmetry relationships. Re inspiration, there are numerous artists in different galleries around the world + online whose work I study, enjoy and learn from. Then there are subjects such as shop/cafe/hotel/restaurant/pub awnings + umbrellas that I've always loved because of their simple 3d canopy design and these often appear in my early work too. Trees/nature is another big influence with the incredible array of designs, colours, textures, leaf/flower translucent properties, different seasons/weather conditions, lighting and so on. Then there's the digital art world and after 10+ years experience creating cg work, I still avidly follow all the developments happening at the moment like Unreal Engine 5.6, 'Lumen', 'Nanite' + 'Megalights' + Nvidia 'RTX mega geometry', all of which I find fascinating + keep learning from. Modular design ie flat pack furniture with the mathematical design instructions. Lego products especially their Ninjago range. Japanese culture: Origami, Kirigami, Chiyogami, Transformers + Gunpla robots. My residency with Andrew James Art in Shanghai, China was another great influence. Finally there's the random day to day stuff like a packaging design in a supermarket or brightly coloured interlocking plastic barriers in the high street for example that keep providing ideas for future work.
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