“One of the perennial bugbears of artists is storage. Unless one lives in a castle, there’s never enough room to store all the paintings that have accumulated over the years, especially the also-rans and the experiments, those that don’t quite work but perhaps could be given life with just a few dabs here and there… One day I decided to have a clear-out, but was immediately faced with works that contained patches I was loath to part with. On the other hand, I couldn’t bear the thought of repainting them. So I tore out the good bits!

There they were, different shapes and sizes, thrown higgledy-piggledy onto the table, and as I contemplated them, my roving eye began to see intriguing juxtapositions and shapes.

That’s how it started. With torn paintings, fragments, lines stopping in mid-air, broken shapes. Now the question was how to piece them together, create relationships, give them a place within a dancing whole.”