I really did feel a bit overwhelmed by all of it. The cumulative effect of seeing so many paintings, many of them 'major', is really very different from looking at, say, two smaller works as a part of a group show, and it took me a little while to come to terms with all of it, especially as it's such strong stuff.

Indeed I think I was a bit under-prepared for the sheer strength of it - the scale, the affinities with serious (effectively) European painters like Kiefer, Twombly and Tapies, the all-important and apparently pretty tempestuous process of building up those layers over months or more that is so evident on the surfaces of the actual work, the 'new' sweet colours, and best of all that pervasive risk-taking quality (which I suppose must stem from your discovery, as you put it, that you *can* paint) which is rare enough to see but unmistakeable and awfully exciting in real life.

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