For me painting is first and foremost about paint. While a number of my abstract paintings start with the germ of an idea in my head, most of my work – be it abstract or figurative – starts with a photograph. However it begins, the painting somehow finds its own development as paint and colour are applied to canvas. It is the continual honing of painting technique that both drives the work and – perhaps paradoxically – gives it depth.

With regard to content – insofar as this can be separated out, I start with what is close to home. Expansive abstracts derive from views from or within my studio. My figurative paintings are based on old black and white images from my family album. The latter have a particular evocative quality which stems both from their archival nature and from the fact that the colours have had to be invented, guessed at, or dimly remembered. Newer, more site-specific work is in a more photo-realist style which exploits the qualities of photography (soft edges, blur, white-out etc.) but - again - by means of the skilled use of paint.

marilynmarshall@talktalk.net 07970 040791