Meanwhile, I’ve been painting almost every day. It’s hard, vigorous physical labour, standing for hours while using repetitive arm movements. I have to be careful not to use my right arm too much or I will get a sore arm and a headache. So I use my left arm when I remember. It is liberating to do so not only because it is not the arm I usually write with but also because I don’t have the same control. My left arm makes a different kind of mark than the right. I understand now why left-handed people write with the letters slanted left. It just happens naturally that way. And it does effect the marks on the canvas.
I’ve been working intensively for an exhibit at the Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery here in Halifax, opening April 1. The gallery is very large and the paintings are large as well. I was asked to write something about what I am doing with the work for that exhibition. I said:
“These new paintings focus on marrying the paintings to the space of the gallery. The scale of the paintings matches the expanse of the room. With a change in palette to more subtle colour variations, this work allows an opening up in form in order to go deeper inside the painting.”
It will be exciting to see the paintings out of my cluttered studio and in the space for which they were intended.