This series is a divergence, in some respects, from my former practice. My work in the past has often been about layers, in some cases with a play of representational images glimpsed through passages of expressive paint-handling that emphasise the content of the painting. The recent work became simplified in its imagery. Although still led by my fascination with the manipulation of paint, it was very much concerned with some strong motifs and concepts I wished to express, and these developed hand in hand with the physical progress of the painting. I was inspired by a line of poetry by Leonard Cohen that succeeded in gathering whirling thoughts into focus: ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.’ The ideas around the contrasts of light and dark, hope and despair, the journeys of damage to repair, the resilience of the human spirit, required a form, and Cohen’s words went straight to the essence of these emotions. Needing one element to access the other.  White light is made up of all the colours.  In darkness the colours cannot be perceived until light shines upon them.