Interregnum

1977 -1983

After the completion of The Seasons in 1976 I found myself in uncharted terrain. There I found that I had no desire to continue with the same geometrical style, having brought the technique to a stage where it could not be taken any further without repetition. All my instincts, and the paintings themselves were telling me that I needed to move in a different direction. The changes had already begun in The Seasons. I had stopped using the spray gun and the painting surface became painterly.

Over the next six years I experimented with different techniques. I was searching, not so much for a style, but for an image that would help me express what I had tried to express in the earlier work. The style would emerge from this need to express that image in my own personal way. Most of the hundreds of paintings I did over this period no longer exist – the canvases got painted over and used for later works, as they were simply a means to a new end. It wasn’t until 1983 that I found myself again. The paintings shown here are all that remains from this period.