Down Cwmdonkin

This is an example of my ‘refractionist’ technique at work as I build up the painting, first from breaking down a photo into areas of colour, which I sketch in as mainly black and white, gently adding colours that I feel will represent light on colour at different depths of perception. Then I add to these ‘segments’ individual colours, reflecting light being refracted on different areas and at different distances. Slowly I build up these complementary spectral colours, constantly having to retreat some distance from the canvas to inspect the painting to see if it is coming together or being constructed in a coherently plausibe way. Each segment helps construct the perception of the scene, in this case, building up a picture of a path through a park. In fact, this park is Cwmdonkin Park where the great poet and composer of words, Dylan Thomas used to walk as a boy and young man. His family home is minutes away, hugging the side of this park. The final painting is quite expressionist but also conveys a spectral, refracted light spectrum hence the name ‘refractionist’ as it is the combination of light falling on various materials at different distances that I am attempting to ‘express’ or as my sister, described it, a ‘stain glass’ effect. This is apt as I love paintings that somehow expresses the extraordinary in the ordinary, the supra natural in the natural, the divine in the mundane, hence the spectral feeling I am attempting to communicate through the painting. The fleeting moment of wonder or awe when we walk into a sunlit and stain glassed church almost.