A topsy turvy time

I want to talk about how we perceive things around us, and how the moment we’re in can shape what we create. So this isn’t a comment about the politics of today, but about how topsy turvy our life can be at any period of time and how it comes out in what we create. Of course this is my own experience but I would suspect many of you have found the same at some time?

So to refer to my abstract work, the scenes which I’ve described before in brief, were created in a period or turmoil in my life which turned my life literally upside down. To make sense of all the confusion, the drama of finding some cohesion and security, I translated this into a body of images. I used pen and ink line drawing and oil paint to show how features of a landscape can overlap and interlink when drawn together from different angles. This took time and a focussed approach to an emotional time.

The fact is, if a landscape is upside down, are you tempted to turn your head to see it? It depends on your perception of what you see. What I want you to do is view every image as a whole image, and regard each feature within the image as part of the composition as a whole without looking upside down. Does this idea work? I believe so and those who have bought some of the paintings in the past have seen this for themselves. The thing is - these artworks can be hung in four ways and can be viewed in four ways. How can this be possible? Do you see the topsy turvy or the cohesion?