:: 2020 :: 663cm x 43cm in thirteen 51cm x 43cm panels :: UV Lacquer on Canvas ::
The 2020 global pandemic not only liberated a resurgent musical practice, but also oriented me towards something I had been considering for a couple of years: a technique of painting with UV Lacquer which I called 'Silent Painting'. This arose out of an aesthetic unique to my practice, called the Dual Image Medium, where one painted image is seen by daylight, and another different image is seen under ultraviolet illumination. The 'hidden' image in this method is rendered in UV lacquer medium which is transparent under daylight conditions but fluoresces in the presence of UV light.
From 2018 onwards, I began to conceive of a curious adaptation to this technique: removing the daylight image but keeping the hidden UV image which is unseen by daylight. In other words, by daylight, one sees a blank canvas or extremely faded image, and it is only under UV illumination that the painted image suddenly and strikingly comes into view. I produced a few small-scale paintings exploring this idea, but it wasn't until 2020, when 'Sparkling Isolation' was taking shape as a music project, that I realised this method could be used to incorporate art into the mix.
'And What Will I See...?' (Silent Painting)
:: 2018 :: 25cm x 35cm :: Acrylics & UV Lacquer on Canvas ::
I have yet to exhibit this frieze, or any of the early developmental 'Silent Paintings' in public, but they lend themselvs to some interesting curatorial ideas. Among these might be to exhibit a gallery full of apparently blank canvases comes stunningly to life under a sudden UV illumination. However, once the frieze was painted and the ambient music album completed, I moved onto other projects. I had, though, always wanted to make a film of the frieze, using some of the music from the project. In early 2023, this was finally completed, and the film can be viewed above. Whether I choose to take this technique further is, at present, an open question.
'She Moves Liminal' (Silent Painting)
:: 2019 :: 18cm x 24cm :: Acrylics & UV Lacquer on Canvas ::
