Interstice Series (2006)

The Interstice Series came from the idea of in-betweens.

Before I started painting the thirteen canvases in the series, I wrote myslf a set of instructions; they were:

'What is painted on the first canvas will be painted on them all in turn.
After each 'paint round' paintings are all to be turned 90 degrees clockwise.
Paintings have no correct way up, so that when finished any direction is the correct way up.'

Following instructions should, in theory, have created duplicate paintings. however distinct differences occured in each.  Also occasionally a painting behaved in a more individual way that seemed to ask for different treatment. To stay within the parameters of the instructions created on-going working dilemmas.

The group of paintings behaved like a ‘collective’ becoming more than the sum of the separate canvases. At times the collective seemed to gang up on me.

Making each individual painting work within the context of the group was a challenge. It was also challenge to finish the paintings because when they appeared finished in one orientation, I'd discover they weren't finished in the others.

Another aspect to the experimental nature of the Interstice Series was one of the paint rollers I used to paint them. I wanted an element of uniformity in the word image painted on the canvas. Eventually I contacted Carl Ingalls of www.embossingtechnologies.com in the USA. Despite my request being very different in nature to his usual business, Carl was incredibily helpful. He was also very knowledgeable and offered to collaborate on a project to create the bespoke word pattern roller. The outcome was the very successful roller I used for the paintings.