map paintings.htm

map paintings for sale and to commission how map paintings began....... about map paintings read exhibition reviews back to index
Mount Etna triptych	2	3
Costa Rica	Mount Etna	Angel of the Andes
Bolivian map painting	Cuban map painting	The Angel of Chichester
Brighton to Saltdean map painting	Barcelona map painting	Iceland map painting
Brighton map painting	London map painting


about map paintings The map paintings are an ongoing series. I start off by making a monoprint using a map of that place, directly onto calico. In some there are figures, text, names of places... parts of which I fill with paint, which produces a random form, or pattern. The subjects are chosen from places I have visited or know well. The painting evolves, the colours I choose are influenced by my feelings and experiences of the place. Why a map? A map is a plan of where we travel, walk, a track, our route. It's recognisable as a map, it has it’s own kind of structure which gives the feeling of the painting having an internal order. Much of my work is concerned with the forces of nature and landscape phenomena on which images and icons of cultures, impressions of civilisations and their terrains, are imposed, and a map is a mark of our presence on the landscape. The map paintings can be seen as landscapes, but whereas a landscape is often a representation of a place, the map paintings differ; you could just wander around in them and you wouldn’t bump into anything, like a building. You could meditate or dream. There’s no gravity, but they do refer to real space, not illusory space. A map doesn’t look like the streets that it represents. I take this plan out of its context and float it into space, using its design as the basis for an abstract landscape. The blended colour gives an illusion of space, solidity and form. The resulting painting can be seen as an abstract work with a sense of place as a starting point.