Recently I've painted ready-made's like African masks that have previously languished at the bottom of a charity shop corner, but these days I've found myself drawn to buddha objects that I don't fully understand.
They evoke a calm and a tranquil feeling without necessarily demanding a religious response or set of instructions. Also, there are the animal objects that wilt in furniture shops where they are ready to make a deal just to get shot of them.
Size of my work has multiplied. The long term strategy is to metaphorically 'unseat a rider' on a model of a full scale horse, and return it to being untamed,and restored to nature. Painstakingly painting or, 'pouring' vibrant colour as if a bucket of cool water is being poured over a horse on a hot summer day, I'm trying to instantly revive it, so it can bolt from the stables and out into the fresh air.Yet I seem to be putting my Great-Grandfather out of the saddle making business retrospectively, and biting the hand that feeds me (also retrospectively) in terms of the omnipresence of horses as the mane form of individual transport, during his time.
Yet, in counterpoint to this lies the idea that I want to paint a hobby-horse so to re-engage it as a functional toy for children to enjoy,and 'wear away the saddle' not of none use, but exact the opposite. The residing argument is not to paint objects and canvasses purely as consumable fodder and yet not to exclude as many as possible to enjoy what I do, which I feel is genuinely aesthetically pleasing.