April 4 - May 11, 1997 Drips and Drops

The idea for this show started when Paul observed some ‘experiments’ in my painting studio, in the stables of Melville House. A space inherited from painter Michael Stevenson after he left for Australia which sadly I have now lost. Here, in an area that I could leave and return to self-contained with an atmosphere of tremendous privacy, I worked for many months developing new methods of painting and a new attitude towards painting itself. One of the earlier pieces finished was simply a rolled out sheet of building paper with spray-painted dots and folded used filter papers floating on top…. The use of filter papers reminded Paul on one of his visits to the studio, of a series of old works he had made in the mid ‘70s using intravenous drips running dye onto fabric. And so were planted the seeds of this show’ a contrast of my works involving filtering of coloured impurities and Paul’s new pieces with infusions from drips carrying coloured dye along stretched fabric.

The works have been presented here at Easter, a date that was randomly selected and unplanned but fits in well with the ideas and themes that run through the works, hence its use in the show’s title…… large yellow flowers created from transfused dye reminiscent of yellow daffodils coming through the snow in a European spring, a pure white flounder infused with life.

So this is the show: new life, seeking to understand life, water pouring onto the land, rebirth, revival, filtering and purifying fluids and infusing in new life. : Exhibition notes by Fran Dibble