A POINT OF ARRIVAL

There are certain paintings that become markers in an artist’s practice.

Not necessarily because they are the largest, the most technically accomplished or the most important to anyone else, but because they capture a moment when something begins to make sense.

My painting of the Aston Martin Valkyrie remains one of those works for me.

At the time, I had been exploring movement for many years — looking for ways of suggesting speed without simply painting blur, and trying to find a balance between the precision of an engineered object and the instinctive energy of mark-making.

With the Valkyrie, those different approaches began to come together.

The car remains present, but it is allowed to emerge from and disappear into the marks surrounding it. Lines pass through the bodywork. Colour stretches beyond its physical form. Carefully observed details sit beside gestures that were made quickly and intuitively.

There is control, but there is also permission for things to happen.

Looking back, I recognise this painting as a point of consolidation. It brought together many of the ideas I had been developing separately and showed me that they could coexist within the same work.

Perhaps that is why it remains one of my favourite paintings.

It represents more than the Aston Martin Valkyrie itself. It reminds me of a moment when I began to trust the visual language I had been slowly developing — and realised that I didn’t need to choose between precision and intuition.

Both could belong in the same painting.