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For the past year or so I have been creating new work in a project supported by the Arts Council of Wales. The use of resin ties in with my inclusion of coloured glazes, varnishes and semi transparent layers in my previous paintings, and is something I have been toying with off and on over the past few years.

The idea behind the project was to explore the potential of industrial resins as surface painting materials, allowing the resins to retain marks, imperfections and signs of the artist’s hand. I wanted to try to discover a new, gestural language of resins used in place of paint, and move away from the perfectly cast forms that we more usually assume resins will be.

This resulted in a year of experimentation, with my forthcoming exhibition showcasing the results. These include paintings made using specialist substances normally found on oill rigs and in car manufacturing plants, as well as the more usual latex and polyester resins. all work stems from the figurative as the figure is where my fascination lies, but moves away from the purely representational portrait to concentrate more on shape, form, feel, texture and gesture, referring to the language of sculpture and surface quality, volume, shape and size.

A very exciting aspect of the project was the chance for me to collaborate across industry and work with a wonderful polymer chemist who has helped to guide, advise and inspire me throughout.

The results have turned out to be truly wonderful.

An exhibition of my resin work will be on show at Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre, St David’s Rd, Cwmbran NP44 1PD. It will be officially opened by BBC Radio 2’s Lynn Bowles at 12-2pm on Saturday 11th Feb 2012. Please do come along for a glass of wine and a chance to chat to me about the work.

I’m so excited that this project has finally reached the point of exhibition. It’s probably one of the hardest things I have ever done: the nature of the project was so very experimental with no fixed outcome, and yet I had promised to produce n exhibition of new work. Sometime it was quite daunting; there were times when test after test of the various resins failed and I felt I might never produce artwork that I was able to show. But perseverance paid off, and finally results that made me happy began to appear. Now I truly feel I have pushed my practice into new and exciting places. I will continue to explore and expand this body of resin based artwork, and welcome any opportunities to exhibit elsewhere.