Some time back in the Pandemic I began a process of rethinking the border texts for my Lunar Pulls series of paintings that I’ve been making since 2019. These started out as banner works that themselves followed on from others that began back on Shetland in 2017 (more on these here) and have developed over these past three years into more conventionally proportioned paintings.
Initially the framing texts, fragments of poems, were a variety of colours for each letter but last autumn I began juxtaposing a single colour for the text against a contrasting ground colour. After some reflection I’ve decided to revisit the earlier works and repaint them. I think this unifies and enhances the textual component, the framing device and – in some works – strengthens the internal imagery (that in a number of the pictures I’ve marginally revised as well).
In Other News
Another charity auction is coming up – right now. Details here and I’ve donated the work below…one from my ongoing series Very Like Jazz. In this one my fifties obsession has drawn in the marvellous designer Lucienne Day to provide imagery. If you fancied it I’m sure a modest bid would secure it.
and finally, the last iteration of Enzo Marra’s curation of the show Stand Close And Breathe Me In is taking place in a few weeks time at the Elysium Gallery in Swansea. I’ve a small panel painting, Sopocani, in the show. It uses a fragment of a Vasko Popa poem as the framing device and – with my customary indifference to sources – plunders the imagery of the poem’s source, murals on a Serbian Monastery wall.
When I reflect on all these works I can’t help thinking that the diversity of my practice as a painter is both a blessing and a curse!
Plainly Painting - David Manley 
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