Light and Structure

Light filters across the architecture of a space as subjects can be seen simultaneously as windows and doors. Barely tangible forms or structural elements can hint at a room recently vacated. Soft, muted light is diffused or refracted through the grids and screens. By introducing outside elements, one world seems to morph into another, captured as if through a veiled lens.

I became fascinated in the use of screening and light in traditional Japanese architecture on visits to Japan in the last decade. As Jun’ichirō Tanizaki wrote in In Praise of Shadows, ‘The Light from the garden steals in but dimly through paper-panelled doors...’ I loved the interplay between the outside and inside or a faint shadow observed through a screen.

This inspired me to depict feelings and memories in my paintings as snapshots in time, which became a recurring theme as I explored the interplay of light and shadow, through the application of opaque and translucent glazes of oil.