Dom Theobald: Paint Takes Shape

I use drawing, cameras and digital technologies to gather ideas together for paintings and prints. They are imagined landscapes of colours and forms: houses and rivers, trees and paths, boats and clouds, industry and vehicles. The pictures feel musical to me. They start with elements and with abstraction, and rely on rhythm, repetition and space. These paintings are improvised. Improvisation has as many 'rules' as any other approach. The only difference here is that the 'rules' are subject to improvisation as much as the colours and forms are... Landscape as an idea is useful, but these don't depict anything external - simply a stage on which to place whatever I want. Recently I've been struck by the quiet beauty of Tatreez embroidery, the location of which is being destroyed by the genocide occurring in Palestine. I am also moved by the boat graffiti found on the back of church pews in Norfolk, and by my daughter's drawings. Art is everywhere.