The Market Paintings

I started making paintings of street markets in London soon after moving to the city in 1999. I was attracted not only by the visual allure of the produce on display, but also by the human interaction of the sellers and shoppers. Since then, I have travelled extensively abroad, including several trips around Latin America, visiting markets in cities which seemed to take me to the heart of the place's daily rhythm, culture and identity.

Markets are intensely evocative places for me. They are great diverse meeting places, representing a whole culture of trade and exchange of basic things -food, clothes and physical stuff we need. Their origins go right back to the source of urban life. In making the paintings, I also saw a connection - which I had originally explored in painting the Wholesale Fruit and Veg paintings - between how goods and produce are displayed on a market stall and the aesthetic activity of structuring a painting. It's the same thing, fundamentally - about making an appeal to the eye and the senses. There's also a drama here - market stalls are like little theatres as the traders seek to capture your attention. And, equally, I was interested in showing the backstage activity going on too, and catching moments when the traders are not "performing".