Crystal Energies

“Crystal Energies” carries the thickest relief of anything I have made. Vertical folds run from the top edge to the bottom and stand more than a centimetre off the canvas.

The canvas is 120 × 100 cm, mixed texture technique with gold, no frame.

The surface is like a cut through bark or a rock face. Gold and silver lie between the folds, and on the crests they are rubbed back to white.

I left the edges of the canvas open on purpose. A frame would hide the thickness. And the thickness here is the work.

A textured painting with this much relief lives entirely on light. With a lamp to the side the folds throw deep shadows and the wall behind them opens up; in even daylight everything softens.

You have to come right up to it. Everybody puts a hand on it.

Hang it in a living room, a study, a hall. It suits a brown or graphite wall better than a white one: on a pale ground the gold loses half its force.