'Ghost Light', 2016

I wrote this as a description to the painting 'Ghost Light' but feel it's also a good entry to understanding my 'Uncertain Spaces' project of the past few years.

'Ghost Light', is a personal favourite of mine and I'll explain why.

When I search for spaces to develop into paintings around where I live, the spaces and places I'm interested in are those that attract me hugely but I'm not sure what that attraction is, it remains unqualified, enigmatic. What I'm looking for is that weird sensation of grasping for a meaning without having an understanding. The feeling that there's something half-formed on the tip of my tongue but not quite there. If I have an understanding at the time of taking the reference photo I usually reject the image. This is why I use the word "uncertain" so much when talking about my work.

Without getting too heavy I've lived with a great deal of internal uncertain nebulous anxiety in my life (which I'm now on top of thankfully). However, this pervading feeling of anxious uncertainty seems to be an apt one to describe a response to our current times. It's why I shifted my focus from day time to that of twilight and night around 5 years ago. Where things that we may know well can gain an aspect that can be at odds to what is familiar because of the nature of changing light.

In the slow act of painting, as well as constructing the painting I construct a relationship and sense of what's being depicted. I usually stay clear of overt personal description (or at least try to) when describing my work as I love hearing the different responses people have to my paintings which can be worlds away from my own.Everything about this particular painting is 'right' in terms of what I've been exploring over the past couple of years. From the moment of seeing the light glowing in the mist and being utterly entranced by it without having a clue as to why. Something about the mist, something about the partially hidden forms that suggest railings and more. Something about the silence of the empty dual carriageway. Something about the vibrancy of the grass complimenting the silvery blue hues. It feels full of meaning and portent but of what exactly I really can't say. And, that is why I love it. It's still an enigma to me 4 years after painting it.