Mike Walker
I make non-representational paintings. I do not start from observed phenomena and there is no process of abstracting from something seen in the external world. I think of my paintings as things-in-themselves.
Avoiding depiction means that I have to find other strategies for making paintings. It’s not that I create rules, but rather that through a process of working various possibilities are eliminated and others come to the fore. Each sequence explores a particular set of variables and common factors.
I am also interested in the materiality of paint, its capacity to behave in certain ways and to generate the painting. The paint is in motion on the canvas, subject to gravity, and the final painting records this activity. Gradually I am learning to control how this happens and to repeat what was initially unpredictable, but each painting always comes as a surprise when I make it.