These mountain paintings are not about landscape. They are not concerned with distance nor with the physical structure of the mountain, which is simply indicated by a large central triangle. The tight construction – a triangle within a square, conveys the mountain’s immobility and is the common feature of a series of variations, which explore the interaction of stillness and movement, permanence and change.
Canigou (2,784 metres), on the border between France and Spain, is a symbol of Catalan identity and the subject of legends and superstitions. It has a powerful magnetic force caused by iron deposits, which have been worked for centuries, and underground water from the melting snow makes the surrounding area fertile.
At midwinter the sun sets directly behind the mountain and for six weeks the evening sky blazes with improbable evolutions of shape and colour.
The sky as space is barely present in the paintings as notions of background are deliberately avoided, but its volatility and potential for violence and lurid beauty are transferred into the mountain itself by the use of colour.
Dynamo
Acrylic on board 110 x 110cm
May Day
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm
St John’s Day
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm
St John’s Night
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm
Rainmaker
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm
Who Goes There?
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm
About 5.30
Acrylic on board 110 x 110 cm