Perhaps we might instead reflect on those finished works of art that not only began but completed themselves in these mono-chrome modes without hesitation, such as e.g. this grisaile of what appears to be a portrait of Rubens with half a moustache, by an unknown artist.

Let us assume the ability to extend the Face into the Font of this 'Rubens with a half moustache' mode of painting things  into the font, into the concreteness of the font and into the absence of the font whilst we explore how this might be extended into those ideas expressed by Deleuze and quoted as above.

All of my art, whether based on the the human figure or architectural forms, can be read with an emphasis on a variety of capricious, whimsical, stylistic and functional inconsistencies or self-contradictory aspects.

These may be non-mimetic, formal aspects or they may relate to the conceptual meaning of the work.

I might build a painting out of a tonal structure where, for example, certain objects may be lit from a different direction to other parts of the painting, Or perhaps the work involves inconsistent vanishing points or unusual colour combinations or contradictory meanings.

I tend to organise my themes in series, where the title of the series is envisaged as illuminating the content.

In "Singers for a Silent Movie (The Auditioners)", the paintings provide a context, (that of a singing audition for a silent movie), which challenges the relationship between subject and object as ordinarily experienced in a work of art. By presenting the figure as participating in an audition, it presents the viewer with a figure which is not passive, but which is inviting a judgement as to the quality of their silence in singing. The figure depicted therefor, might be viewed as an active rather than passive participant in the exchange in that they are making a demand upon the viewer.

This aspect of the exchange is reinforced through the inclusion of an identity marker on the page in the form of the phonetic spelling of 'the auditioners' as 'ðiː ɔː'dɪʃ(ə)nəs', because correct pronunciation in a silent speech act through good spelling is an unusual idea.

The series of 'metaphysicians with an adjustable' is formed around what we might interpret as something of a philosophical joke. Where a reputation for the intangible and inconstant (the state of being there and not there, of spanning, of being partially invisible) is ironized through the evocation of something as concrete as an adjustable spanner, though not of the kind of fit we are used to as tools.

These paintings depict a world where the divergent is ever present through the seeming remembrance of the dismembered. Thus the works, with their never entirely consistent formal properties aim at a world where normalcy seems to cry out as itself in a world of brokenness collapse and dereliction. Where, what was once a place defined in terms of articulate structure, becomes an enactment experienced as empty and false, but where the people carry on as normal, an experience since the lockdown, perhaps not entirely uncommon.

Overview