The Optics of Harmony Painting

Paintings are illusions. But the medium and the surface together generate a reality: an object but also a reaction from the viewer. Whatever impulse to communicate inspires a painting, the object that comes from that desire becomes its own reality. And the process of conveying an idea in paint alters it, sometimes to a degree where the original idea is unrecognisable: the hand isn’t merely doing the bidding of the mind. This is what makes the creative process so exciting to me. This is why I paint. I take my inspiration from nature, abstracting what I see to try to distil a sensation. Often I seek to represent catharsis, similar to what I might feel looking at nature. I often use lines, singly or in great monochrome or chromatic clusters, to convey a sensation or a rhythm onto a two-dimensional surface.