I hung out with this painting for a long time. It was worked on in three different studios as the world around it went into a spin. I started it in Berlin in 2019, later bringing it to a religious sculptors studio in Ireland. Then Covid chased us to a shed at the bottom of a tiny garden, where I finished it in May 2021. It's a painting about movement, pace, action, and contemplation. The title speaks volumes about the movement of mankind from …
Painting is a moving thing. Describing that movement with words is difficult. I hope I can capture the major twists and turns of this piece with the help of some studio shots taking over whenever the words conk out. The canvas is Belgian linen. The scent of Belgian linen is up there in my pantheon of all-time favourite smells. It’s the olfactory equivalent of a cockerel crowing in the morning. A little bit of oil paint and it’s gone. I left the canvas untouched for weeks to hold on to that scent and packed it when I left for Italy last summer...
