PIVOT

This piece, Pivot, started from a sketch I did on newsprint, a twisting figure drawn from imagination. It was dynamic right from the start, but I hadn’t planned to turn it into a painting. Then one day in the studio, Jamie suggested cropping it and scaling it up, and I could immediately picture it. The proportions worked, the negative space was interesting, and I knew it had potential. There’s a lot happening in this piece. Strong triangular shapes, a mix of thick and thin lines, and three main colour masses. I’ve always loved working with complementary colours, especially blue and orange. In this case, it’s a very specific orange that really pulls forward next to the blue. Some people might see more yellow, but for me it’s the orange that comes alive because of what’s beside it. Structurally the pink line acts as the armature for the form holding it steady. Its electrifying colour is more appreciated from a distance. I also wanted each shape to have a bit of pattern or texture, not flat, and not too clean. From far away, it’s subtle, but up close, you can feel it. That sculptural quality in the dark blue at the bottom, II love that! Colour relationships like this continue to fascinate me, the way one hue shifts entirely depending on what it’s placed next to, how blue can pull orange forward, how pink can cool the space around it. It’s something I keep coming back to, always wanting to understand it better through the work.