The Circle Paintings started while I was studying for a post graduate in Fine Art in Cyprus.

I was reading an article about pollen in an old copy of National geographic.

While looking at the B&W images of these microscopic particles, a thought hit me, this very basic, yet fundamental shape; the circle, is universally repeated throughout nature and the universe.

From Micro to Macro, Pollen to Planets. Whether it's recognised as a disc, a hole, an orb, ripples on a pond etc, they are all connected by this shape.

 

The first set of paintings I made were specifically about the circle.

4 paintings, the same size circle placed on the same size canvases, yet all painted differently. The idea was that they were the same but yet visually so different in character.

The Hammersmith circle series paintings were born out of this idea.

10 canvases the same size.

In these paintings the circles are the same size, and the radius was based upon the length of my arm.

These canvases were rectangle unlike the squarish ones of the Cyprus Circle paintings.

There is more space around the circle which creates a different but more pronounced relationship between the circle and its surrounding space.

By adding another element to this surrounding space(eg, a vertical line) created a new dynamic and tension which I wanted and found exciting because it created a new relationship.

By taking things back to such basics through the use of this beautiful shape I felt as though I was relearning visual language and began to truly understand the language of abstraction.

The circle paintings first started when I was living in cyprus in 1997/98 and they continued over an intense period in Hammersmith in 1999