Willow World Series: (1999 - 2001)Large abstract paintings

I worked on and off this series of almost two years.  I do not know just how many paintings have been completed on this theme, but it is a healthy number.  The photo below was taken in my studio at Carpenter's Road Acme Studio in London.  

Willow World. Oil on canvas, 48 x 90 inches. Jan - March 2000. Price: £3200

I worked on this particular canvas for three months. It has approximately twenty five layers of oil paint. When the correct light falls on it ... all the tones of blue, cobalt purple, touch of  magenta, sap green, burnt umber... all come to life. The sensitivity to the transparent blue pigments gives a sense of depth which heightens the texture.

Willow World. oil on linen. 70 x 102 inches. July - August 1999. Price: £4200

On display at Cafe Mondo (next to Stratford library, East London)

Willow World was initially inspired by Philip Glass (contemporary composer)... it was his use of mathematics to construct music compositions that led me to approach my painting in a similar fashion. I decided to explore the positive and negative space created in SIN, COS, and TAN functions. Then develop the composition with linear and organic forms.  

As the series developed I grew inspired by Paul Cézanne. And how he used cylinders, planes, and systems of lines to dissect landscape.   It was the also Seurat's Bather at Asnieres that simulated my creative process.   

So I returned to my studio and started creating Willow World.  I replaces the horizon line with an X-axis... and intentionally places it in the middle of the canvas. Traditionally you are taught to place the horizon line above or below it.

After a little bit of studies, and manipulation I found I had formulated a composition. As illustrated in the image to the right.

I must admit that I feel I failed in my attempts to explore and balance positive and negative space in this work. my intentions were to try to create the kind of balance you see in a spiders web,  or the composition winter tree branches and how they paint themselves across the blue sky.  

After two years of painting and completely a large number of drawings and canvases...  do I feel  that I  managed to remotely achieve the kind of balance I was striving for.  The painting  just below is a personal favorite. It has twenty layers of oil paint and I worked on it work approximately three months.

Willow World. Oil on linen. 30 x 60 inches. Aug - Oct 2000. Price: £1600

Willow World. oil on linen. 36 x 36 inches. Summer 2001. Price £800