The subjects in these paintings have come to me through instinct rather than design; I don’t go out to hunt them down but come across them on my travels and feel a great empathy for them.
On occasion this manner of recording can lead to exposing very interesting histories. Sometimes it’s like being a detective wheedling bits of information to get a complete picture or story of the subject.
When I was living in Sydney in the 80’s working as an architect, on my way to work one morning I saw something that stopped me. I had not got my camera with me (before mobile phones) and I missed the opportunity to capture it. Then and there I made the decision that my camera comes with me to record whatever arrests my vision no matter what and work it out later. The result of that decision has left me with a huge catalogue stretching back decades.
Sometimes having recorded an image it will go into the vault (file) and mature. Amongst the images I have collected some will come back to me and hang around in my subconscious, alerting me to their readiness as a subject to be painted. This can happen over years - one of my favourite images, The Ballerina, remained sleeping for 25 to 30 years before it started working on me. Sometimes in dreams or a random flashback during an otherwise ordinary day . Other images are more urgent, for example, “Splendour in Retreat”. Something that harks back to my attitude regarding architectural legacy and the contentious world of preservation.
These paintings record the period from the late 70’s; following my first six year sojourn in Australia, to the present day.
John Doherty, 2026