Step 11 - Painting step by step

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I've masked the inside of the curve just to make the right hand side easier to paint. Its not difficult to hand paint the curve its just simpler if its masked.Now where's that Yellow ochre?

Step 10 - Painting step by step

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I've unmasked the brown but you'll notice I've left some masking in place. This is because I need to mask off the small circle in the brown section while I paint the silver dots. This will happen later in the painting but the masking may as well stay in place.

Step 9 - Painting step by step

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Ten coats of brown later.It takes ten coats because this particular brown is somewhat translucent, unfortunately its the exact colour I want.

Step 8 - Painting step by step

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Ok, now I'm moving onto the next area to paint. I've masked off the area again but because of the curves on the left hand side of it I'm going to have to paint those manually. See you after several coats of brown!

Step 7 - Painting step by step

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Take all the newspaper and masking tape off and the result looks quite impressive. All the masking means I now have nice flat white canvas to paint the rest of the painting into and do not need to worry about overpainting and unwanted textures as a result.

Step 6 - Painting step by step

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One pot of runny brown paint and an old brush and splash! Actually the trick is to not splash too much, you need to know when to stop.

Step 5 - Painting step by step

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The next step is to mask off the rest of the painting with old newspaper to cover it ready for the splash part of the painting (messy business).

Step 4 - Painting step by step

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I have now applied five coats (needed to get a flat colour) of light orange to provide the base for the splash part of the painting.

Step 3 - Painting step by step

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The edges of the canvas have been masked off to allow a white edge finish at the end and I've now masked off the first area to be painted. Masking saves me having to paint the curves unnecessarily. Masking also allows me to paint specific areas of the canvas wthout painting the whole canvas and then having to overpaint which creates a texture I do not want. I've chosen this area first as it will be the splash part of the pianting and therefore the most messy, its going to be easier to clear up the mess if I do it first rather than wait until later in the painting. I'm sure Pollock would agree, splash first, think later. Its amazing to think the CIA backed Pollock as a way of attacking Communism in the cold war!

Step 2 - Painting step by step

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The first thing I do is draw out the basic structure of the painting. At this stage I already know what this painting is going to look like when finished (getting it there is another matter). Partly this is because it is part of a series of paintings which are all developing one from another. This means that most of the basic language of the painting remains the same from one painting to the next. Its a bit like learning a new language, each painting re-enforces the words you already know and then I try to add one or two more to develop it and my understanding of it.

Step 1 - Painting step by step

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Well you've got to start somewhere and a blank canvas is where every painting starts.

Atoms in a universe of dark energy?

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Here is the latest painting. It continues the development of the language of formal abstract expressionism, controlled but expressive painting.

Exhibition Claremont House Hotel

I have a few paintings on show in a mixed exhibition at The Claremont House Hotel at the moment. The show has a good mixture of styles and the work benefits enormously from the excellent surroundings provided by the Hotel. I'll be putting a full news story about this on the website soon.The Claremont House Hotel

Masha Shubina

Just came across this show by Masha Shubina and it looks like it might be interesting. She's a painter who produces paintings of herself and then posts them on Dating sites. She has an exhibition of her paintings and some of the webpages from the dating sites at the Matthew Brown Gallery. If you're in London give it a shot and let me know what you think!

The Tate Triennial 2006

Just read a review of this show on the guardian website and if you're thinking of going I suspect its worth a read as you may be wasting your time. I can't comment on the show myself as I haven't seen it but this review tells me what I need to know. I'll use my money to buy more canvas instead!What I can comment on though is this modern obsession by curators to force artists to fit into a view of the world they construct. I'm talking about themed art shows here. I'm sick to death of receiving invitations to shows entitled "Black to White" etc. Shoe horning artists into shows this way distorts their efforts at best and sometimes as seems the case in this show actually detracts from the artists and their work.Whatever happened to the open exhibition where all you needed to do was paint what you wanted to paint and hope you got selected. I know the Royal Academy Summer Show (Christ I've just noticed even this has a theme these days!) still exists but where are all the rest.The Tate Triennial 2006 (don't let me put you off)

What's on the wall 02/03/06

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Several new paintings in production here.