Ilove to use a combination of oil paint over acrylic. The acrylic appeals to me for the freedom of expression it allows – large sweeping brushstrokes made from the shoulder characterise the early phase of the painting, when I’m seeking to establish the main shapes and colours. I gather the energy of the grouping so it settles in the boundaries of the page.
In simple terms the oil layer tends to pull together the wildness of the underpainting, to achieve a sort of order in the chaos. As Francis Bacon put it: ‘I like to have order in my work, but for it to have come about through chaos’.
I love it all. It’s an exercise in being curious to what’s there. Puts me in mind of a quotation from the guru Mooji: