“Cl umsy and different is preferable”

Phil explains how he goes from photograph to painting, via an instinctively arranged collage

Working up a coll age

“I have folders and folders of images, almost all photographs (but not all). Some are spectacular just as themselves, some are very abstracted. I go through thousands of photos and set some aside. Then I work the images against each other. I make some drawings from the collage, four or five generally. These are pretty loose, with no rendering ever. Mostly I’m just looking for where the shadows meet the light – when I start actually painting this will give me reference points for locating the image. They help me orient myself.

“Sometimes the drawing is too specific: if you paint up to a line, the speed of your brushstroke and your brushstroke-thinking is slowed. So I create a series of drawings from the same collage, where each is distorted in one way or another.”

Doing everything twice

“I transfer the most promising to the canvas and knock in the basic values. It’s amazing how completely this shows what is there. I try not to make this too refined because I don’t want to be attached to any of it.

“I have to do everything twice. Once to test the ideas of the elements against the reality of how they show up on the canvas. And a second time to effectively use the elements as they occur. This used to mean doing each large painting twice. But that was also too tedious. Now I try to improvise a little more as some aspects fail.”

Keeping it active

“By the time the painting is maturing, the problems are almost always problems of development. As the surface becomes more refined (and often tireder) the impulse behind it gets less focused. And as it becomes more realistically rendered it tends to become more similar to any painting of a similar subject. So much of the issue is keeping the surface active.

“If I had to choose between producing a piece that was traditionally capable or clumsy and different, then clumsy and different is preferable. What I’m really trying to do is to choose and organise some images that have potential, and the potential to interact. And then creating an environment where that can happen. The thing I find least rewarding is when the assignment turns into a progression of steps – like making a cake. I stop being interested, and I stop being able to pay attention properly.”