The Platonic Solid Series comprises 54 small paintings (6"x 4") of hexahedrons of acrylic on board. I started them in November 2023 when I ran out of canvases while painting the Liminal Space series. The even smaller scale and the different surface of the wood boards I began using made me rethink the configuration of what form I should use for this particular size. I wanted to develop the idea of equanimity (in Buddhist terms, it also means equal space) alongside my ongoing interest in exploring paradoxical realms such as balance and instability, simplicity and complexity. The clarity and the weightiness of a cube, being a three-dimensional version of the squares used in my earlier series, seemed a natural choice. The Platonic Solid series has, therefore, come into being. 

The palettes (ultramarine, purple, cinnabar, green earth, earthy yellow, and greyish white) for these paintings are derived initially from the work of early Renaissance artists such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, and Piero della Francesca. The hues are either chromatic (to create a sfumato effect, a technique popularized in Renaissance art) or complementary. The surfaces are painted with several layers to create varied subtleties yet allow the surface of the woodgrains to show through. 

They were painted in groups of six to eight simultaneously, using the same motif and sharing the same, or very similar, colours in different locations. Through the interplay of colours, tones, and light, the three-dimensional quality of a cube is either accentuated or transformed into a two-dimensional shape, blurring into the background and creating a weightless quality and a glow, as if the form is suspended in space. 

Together, they form a rhythm like breathing; so light, yet concentrated.