the devil is in the detail

It's all about the surface, the painting's fractured surface, the myriad textures of surfaces, the light-reflecting surface of matter... the tiny crevices and small fissures, the incidental, the accidental, balancing control with chance, new and yet ancient history, of seismic ground shifts, the earth shivers... tremours, vibrations, eruptions... the surge of the river, at the cliff's edge, a deluge, the crackle and rumble of quakes, the crater of the volcano, ice floes, a ravine, a chasm, a trip into the mind's abyss, the antithesis of a measured, cautious approach, no aesthetic geometry, no visual maps, no colourist's happy vision, a landscape indelibly flawed, it rides on relentless, roughshod, oblivious to your ideals of a painterly perfection.....corros; corrosive, corroding, caustic, abrasive, abraded...meld; misted, damp smoke, ice, molten ash, ashen, brittle, dissolved...marsh; mire, moisture diffused, saturated, sodden ground, damping down all sound...fyre; char and burn, molten, blackened, all liquefied...voda; clear water over rocks, glistening, rippled, furrowed, crystallinesalt tracescosta; at the water's edge, soft sand sleeps, then seepage, a slow escape into the sea...haze; the strange grey dust of the metallic city, visible, invisible, noxious, politely polluted...rost; the fire and the fury, the gnawing noise of rust...fenn; of peat, secret life of soil, a layered bed of moss, quietly decomposing...mist; of vapour, liquorice fields breathe under a frozen lilac sky......Just a reminder that the exhibition of these paintings is still on at Centrepoint in London until January 13, 2009; for visitor info email or visit the Targetfollow website......