A Long-Awaited Update: A Two-Piece Commission

Hey Freddo's, I'm trialling this name for you, my readers... We'll see how it goes down. It's been a while since I've posted here, I thought I'd pick this blogging thing back up with an insight into the latest commission I embarked on. It's safe to say it started off feeling pretty familiar, the two textured paintings homed techniques I’ve developed over the years and a colour palette I naturally gravitate toward. I thought it would be straightforward. But pretty quickly, this project threw a few unexpected challenges my way, and it ended up becoming a much bigger learning experience than I imagined.

Both paintings sit vertically and share a deep, reddish, rust-like tone. It’s a colour that hints at organic matter or oxidised metal, and interestingly, a few people have described them as “flesh-like.”

Texture is a huge part of these works. They’re heavily built up with thick, sculptural areas that push out from the canvas. In others, some parts are raised into these little clusters that people have compared to mushrooms or barnacles, while other areas are smoother and almost flat.

Even though the concept excited me, the process was surprisingly tough. New materials that I naively thought I fully understood behaved in ways I didn’t expect. Some textures wouldn’t settle the way I wanted. Other sections had to be pulled apart and rebuilt more times than I’d like to admit and there were some design choices which had to be re-evaluated but it wasn't a challenge I'd defeated by.

But honestly, all of those challenges ended up being the best part. Each problem taught me something, something about what techniques actually work, where the limits are, and which processes I can trust moving forward and call on for future projects.

By the time the paintings were finished, I realised they had shifted something in the way I approach my work. They represent a turning point in my practice. They pull together years of experimenting with texture, materiality, and surface, but they also opened up a new direction I didn’t fully see coming.

This commission didn’t just result in two new paintings, it pushed me into the next stage of my work. In fact, they’ve already sparked a whole new collection that I’ve begun working on. So even though the journey was much harder than expected, it ended up being completely worth it.

You can find out more about these paintings here