I've been making little collages regularly since 2014. They allow me a forum to experiment; a place to explore and generate ideas. They are unmediated, modest and have a directness I find helpful. Their size serves to accentuate their materiality (an integral aspect of my practice). Printed surfaces become more prominent, paper appears thicker and brush marks more obvious. Working at this scale also helps to limit preciousness and the conservativism that comes with it. It encourages me to work intuitively instead of over-planning.

I have developed a bank of motifs without ever intending to... ‘the mountain/brand’, ‘the figure/k’, ‘the stack’, ’the arch’, ‘the moon/circle’, ‘the monolith/cenotaph’, ‘the insignia/medal’. The motifs are both formal and allusive. They provide a structure, around which colour and texture can be brought and also serve to suggest particular meanings without being explicit. Monoliths and memorials have long had a place in my work. They could be seen to represent the artwork itself, a physical object borne of effort... a relic of an endeavour... a memorial to intent.

They are physical objects, brought into being by a process that engages with (and delights in) the materiality of picture making.