Action Painting

Anyone who has improvised at the piano might agree that the experience is in many ways similar to that of a painter approaching a blank canvas. Nowhere is this concept so pertinent as in the work of the abstract expressionists; applying paint in broad, flowing movements or abrupt flicking, the gradual accumulation of layers to create rich and complex textures, and the occasional emergence of realist forms which have floated up from the artist’s unconscious... the relationship between the keys of a piano and an improvising musician shares many of these qualities: where realism can surface spontaneously in visual arts, fragments of recognisable quasi-melodies or harmonic progressions might appear in improvising at the piano.

The composition of this work was an attempt to simulate such an improvisation; although the piece far from improvisatory, it was nonetheless marked by a preoccupation with the parallels between spontaneous application of paint to a canvas and pianistic gesture.

London, October 2006