This painting is a real departure in my style. I was fascinated with a particular kind of tool, normally found in a kitchen. I wanted to see what I could achieve without brushes. After the black background was dry I began to apply colours from a very varied colour palette (probably consisting of about 10 colours). I deliberately wanted to show the black through the colours so I modified the tools I had to produce the effect. This allowed me to almost scrape the paint across the canvas so I could make small ridges in the strokes allowing the black to be seen underneath. Some people see church pipes, some see a city, others have commented on it looking like candles burning. Personally, I prefer the picture pointing downwards – I have provided examples of how it can be hung in the pictures below. This painting really needs to be lit properly. You simply cannot get the impact of this painting in ordinary daylight – you really need to think about this if you decide to buy it.
There is real serenity to this painting that allows your eyes to move across it with the minimum of effort, allowing the shapes, colours and forms to compose themselves in your mind and come together in the form of reaction. Some forms are rounded, others are chiseled. Getting a balance of colours was difficult as I was aware that an over-density of tones could lead to the painting becoming heavy and unbalanced.
Even with a decent camera it is difficult to show how good this painting looks when lit with a spotlight. Metropolis was painted onto a flat sheet of triple primed Italian tight-weave canvas sheet then mounted onto a hand-made 44mm seasoned timber frame. It is painted using industrial black enamel gloss paint and acrylic colours and measures 143cm x 84cm.