.. and the fragments that remain.

 

Erosion, regeneration, repetition and the use of fire underpin Howe’s Art Practice. On painted wood boards he combines these key work methods with cut grid and arc lines and hard wire and soft bristle brushes to fragment the surface leaving a ghosting of what was before around amorphic shapes that are formed by instinct and the understanding that the spaces between the fragments are as important as the fragments themselves. The cut lines which appear and disappear through the worked layers represent threads of memories and thoughts some crossing, some direct but all incomplete and its this interplay of control and chance that helps guide each painting toward a mutual resolution. 

His paintings are an abstract exploration of our understanding of what we remember, what we forget, the dreams we form from half remembered memories of past times and the interpretation of these lost thoughts and memories by the retention of some but the loss of most. With the fragmentation of the substrate he invites the viewer to explore the disrupted and worked layers of paint and wood that he has evolved through both a physical and emotional expression with the understanding that although we have layer upon layer of memories we only remember fragments we never remember the whole.