ESTATE SERIES

The ‘Estates’ are a series of paintings of suburban housing estates; the modest, all-purpose, vernacular architecture, ubiquitous in UK towns and cities. These paintings share the same interest in big spaces and the lived environment as the Nocturnes and, although they are formal paintings, like the Nocturnes, they convey a quiet melancholy and ennui.

The estate in the painting “Big Estate” is where I was born, although it is a very different place now - where there were a handful of houses back then, there are now hundreds. It looks like thousands of other estates across the UK. The white eaves and UPVC fittings on the houses are picked out to make a rhythm across the central band and flatten the distance of the view up to the picture plane. In all these paintings I am looking for a tension between the thing represented and the abstract marks and calligraphy of the paint. The square format is also part of the attempt to undermine straight representation by working against the expected landscape convention - I would like there to be sense that the work could be hung sideways or upside-down. It is another way to flatten the various elements in the work to abstract areas of paint.

I am pleased that the subject matter, which is really just a vehicle for the paint marks, nevertheless carries a quiet 'English' melancholy. It's an interesting exercise to try and make something beautiful out of such an unlovely subject.