St. Stephens St

Working from photographs I have taken of people on St Stephen’s Street in Norwich, I use a form of free-flowing, unplanned psychic automatism to paint faces, allowing the image to develop alongside whatever Eye-Worm motifs emerge from the subconscious. The painting is made on a continuous roll of canvas, approximately 1.6 metres high and 10 metres long. I work on roughly two metres at a time, moving chronologically from left to right, much like a scroll, laying down the image in successive passes. Once I reach the end, I return to the beginning and work across it again, adding a second or third layer, introducing new motifs, drawing Terminator lines, altering faces, or simply painting over areas that no longer feel right. There is no fixed deadline or predetermined conclusion. The work is deliberately open-ended; part painting, part process, and part reinvention of the sketchbook: a continuous record of looking, remembering, inventing and repainting.