Over the last couple of years I have collected a few thousand photos on my iPhone. Something I certainly never expected to happen.
Before the iPhone was forced on me (as I thought at the time) I did not own a camera and never really bothered collecting photos. I might have had the occasional daydream of getting a video camera to make a couple of short films but never really felt drawn to taking pictures. I have always loved looking at photography but the hassle of making sure to bring a camera, not getting paint and crumbs on it, developing stuff.....z zzz ZZ.....it was never really going to happen.
When I finally did give in to my first iPhone I quickly became addicted to capturing all those brief impressions I take in as I go through the day. The colour of a burnt out car, paint peeling in layers from a derelict building, random colour combinations you never thought you would get away with but nature thinks otherwise, shop displays, metal air-vents and the way they might look at you....
Capturing these images made me more aware of what actually inspires my paintings. I became more conscious of where certain shapes originate from. That said, a lot of these shapes just decide to move in without introducing themselves in any way... all are welcome.
My paintings are layers built up, then destroyed over and over again. Having a camera with me all the time allows me to document some of these stages, usually just before I am about to destroy the painting and push it on to its next level. I get a lot of insight from all these images of "in-betweeners" so now they are everywhere, printed and strewn around the studio, stuck on the kitchen wall and under the car seat.
When I stumbld on tumblr I realised this might be a really nice space to collect all this visual flux. My own little wabi-sabi sketchbook.
