Book Paintings
Like much of my work the Book-Paintings explore the dynamics of seeing and reading, immediate sensual experience and memory. The subject of the books is chosen for cultural resonance and in relation to the specifics of the locations in which the paintings are exhibited. Colours are chosen intuitively, sometimes in relation to the books themselves, sometimes in relation to the place in which the works are painted, sometimes in relation to the group of paintings themselves. The text is always painted only a tone darker than the ground in order to confuse the figure-ground relationships and to slow down perceptual-reading response.

‘The following list is offered in the context of Simon Morley’s work……..William James, Iggy Pop, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, the Flaming Groovies, Meister Eckhart, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, U-Roy, Zen Buddhism, Jesus of Nazareth, the anonymous author of ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’, Lao Tzu, Subway Sect, Nelson Mandela, John Coltrane, Plato, and Joy Division.’ Neal Brown, Catalogue Essay, ‘The Collected Works of George Orwell and other Paintings’ (2000).

 The context of monochrome abstraction is also worth considering.

 

 

PART I - CHAPTER ONE


INDEX