I have had this recurring thought since childhood of a chair in motion. It is more than just a thought, it is an elaborate vision of a complex action, existing exclusively in my imagination. In this vision, a chair is being moved up and down in a nonsensical manner by a mysterious character who is not pictured, but whose actions I feel and visualise.
The vision visits me in day dreams, when I am feeling safe and relaxed. It is familiar, precise, repetitive and reliable. However, it has an uneasy side to it – this vision lives by its own rules, a constant loop that exists in impossible physical space.
“A recurring thought” is an attempt to understand all angles of this experience: the calmness I enjoy while visualising, the movement of the chair, the sense of impossible physicality, the surrounding area and light sources, the feelings and actions of the person moving the chair, and finally the transition of the scene from the imagined to the canvas.
Despite the original recurring thought always being identical, each painting shows a different moment or viewpoint. Sometimes working from sketches of sketches, sometimes fresh from the vision itself. In the earlier paintings most visual elements are abstracted. In the more recent work, the chair becomes recognisable, as I learn to embrace the figurative and allow a truer experience for the viewer.