"Quatre Mazurkas"

This artwork, a collage, (the 32nd in my expanding dedicated series loosely based on the fortification designs of Vauban) uses old sheets of music coloured with red and blue pastel crayons and then cut at angles which were then applied in a random interwoven design to a pre-collaged (with cuttings from music sheets) 84 x 59.4 cm sheet of Canson ‘Imagine’ art paper backing support. These applied angles have been deliberately chaotically applied to create an artwork representing traditional Polish folk dances with lively tempos (and with “strong accents unsystematically placed on the second or third beat” (according to Wikiwand)… hence the “Quatre Mazurkas” title.



All my recent artworks using painted or applied elements of carefully drawn angles originally based on the works of Maréchal Vauban, or Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), who is considered one the of the greatest military engineers of all time. In his life he was responsible for the fortification of over 160 places in France… but his major contribution to warfare was his methods of attack, which revolutionised siege warfare. However, the shapes and angles of his defensive walls surrounding many French towns and seaports have influenced the design of my more recent artworks.