Dominic Mason

‘Flowers do have a very special, lurid allure - they offer a vibrant presence that asserts itself equally well in a variety of cultural contexts: from the heady, scented, damp excesses of sub-continental Hindu temples, to the hanging baskets of Barclays.

Mason and I discussed the whys and wherefores of these formal arrangements - the influence of orthodox colour theory, composition, vertical emphasis, repetition - and then, somehow, we got onto the subject of painting. Painting - that self-indulgent route to pleasure - and its place in a time of austerity.

Often we speak of 'showy blooms', a phrase that suggests gaudy excess - a form of moral judgment. Mason's work seeks at once to question the status of conspicuous excess and to celebrate it through painting.’

Excerpt from Xanthopsia and 189 by Paul Evans.