Textured, Linear Paint Work

I first started painting with acrylic paint on canvas at secondary school and immediately loved it.  In the years that followed the hours spent in Art class just weren't enough painting time for me.  I had an Art teacher who very kindly allowed me to fill up containers with paint so I could also get my painting done at home.  This generous act of support by my teacher really was a life changing gesture for me.  From that point on painting become a huge part of my life, in fact it became a way of life.  From age sixteen or seventeen I always had a canvas on the go.

In my late teens yearly twenties gradually my paint strokes started to thicken.  I didn't think too much about how I was painting I just let it flow unimpeded.  What eventually developed were thick linear lines often circular and flowing around a central object.  For example in my painting "Phoenix Rising" completed in 1995 the central figure is a bird, it is then surrounded by circular rings. 

Thick linear flowing and circular lines became a feature of most of my early paintings.  I don't think anyone truly understands exactly why each Artist paints in a certain way, I guess there are endless reasons why.  For me painting the way I paint is just a natural expression of my inner self, partly conscious and on a deeper level partly unconscious.  There is something about thick textured flowing lines that helps me tell the story I am trying to convey.  For me the lines accentuate natural lines, convey movement, interconnectedness and a sense of flow and freedom.

In recent years I have found myself moving away from my thick linear brush strokes, again this has just been a natural progression.  Now the subject of my painting often determines the way I paint it.  Recently I painted ''Watarrka Walking, Kings Canyon''.  The canyons magnificent sandstone structures have many flowing lines so wanting to highlight and accentuate them I used thick linear paint strokes.  I do enjoy using thick textured paint.  I imagine they are just part of me and will continue to appear in my paintings in some form for as long as I continue to paint.