Charcoal Paintings

Drawings and prints 1972 – 1994.

In 1972 “I began working again with a common form used by artists for many years now, probably first in Malavich’s work, the grid and the cross. I had used these in my early abstractions in the 1950’s, the horizontal and vertical construction, but now began to work on the grid form. I drew with Charcoal on canvas and then wash and fixed the charcoal with cellulose acetate, often using the resist line, which i had used in the early optical work. I think one always brings some things with you from work done before, not always consciously but I think it is inescapable. One looks a long way back, and edges forward.”

….extract from Interview with Richard Allen in 1998, University of Wales, Retrospective Exhibition catalogue and Offer Waterman Retrospective Exhibition catalogue 2008.