In my semi abstract / abstract work I was exploring in part my ideas on the play of 2 realities being captured in one image. By semi abstracting a primary image I could allow the texture or pattern of the second overlaid image be dominant and what would strike you first when viewing, but not losing the real presence of the primary image within. My Beethoven’s Fire painting being a particular example of this.

However, 2 realities can also exist in 2 or in 3 dimensions. As an architect I deal in the 3rd dimension all the time. It was a natural evolution therefore for me to begin to explore how 2D Art could become 3D Art and so provide the potential of being merged with 3D Architecture. This is not a new idea at all. The Baroque and Rocco periods of Neo-Classical Architecture did this in abandon, sculpture, painting and architecture all blended at times in an over exuberant expression of amazing craftsmanship. But it has not been tried, even in a modest way, much at all in modern times.

I have played with this theme of Art into 3D in both my Plein-air & my Imaginative work, introducing real pieces of timber or branches and indeed real stones that emerge from the painting relatively seamlessly into reality. It’s truly interesting and fun and worth further exploration I believe.