AUTUMN 2022

The Farrier, Newmarket. Oil on canvas 1988

I’m not sure about why I am showing you one of my equestrian paintings. I can only think that it has something to do with going to the Cezanne exhibition at the Tate Modern a few days ago. There is perhaps something in the composition of The Farrier that is related to Cezanne’s still life paintings (I am not comparing myself) and it’s also interesting to look back, as I did when I hung my new work.

Here also is what I believe to be one of the fundamentals of painting. That is that the subject matter is not of prime importance. The subjects, in this case a horse being shod by a farrier or apples and other objects on a table, are secondary to the honesty with which the paintings are made.

I hope that those of you who came to my Inner Colours exhibition in September enjoyed it. The inner Colours exhibition gave me an opportunity to look back, as I said above. For the first time I was able to see what I had been struggling with for almost three years. In my studio I see only the painting I’m working on. I try to put out of my mind the previous pieces. Hanging the work on the wall of a gallery is a revelation for me. Not only can I see at once where I have been, but also where I should be going. I have all ready started on the next series for my planned show, at the same wonderful J/M Gallery, in 2025! Optimism?

This is one of the new pieces, still in progress, for my 2025 exhibition. It’s oil on paper, as before but double the size of the largest previous pieces.

Without a doubt, the Cezanne is one of the best exhibitions I’ve been to in a long time, despite it being at Tate Modern. I was disappointed to find that a few of the pieces I had hoped to see were not included at the Tate and were shown only in Chicago. I also recommend the catalogue. The reproductions are excellent and the designers have heeded past criticisms that images should be kept to the single page rather than being spread over two pages with part of the image being lost in the binding where the two pages meet.

The exhibition at Tate Modern continues until 12^th March 2023.