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Statement
Dodd’s process commences with sketches from life, which are then worked up in the studio. He often paints over different versions; trying alternative colours and compositions until hitting on the truest evocation of the source material that inspired him.
An abiding influence on his work is the teaching of Miles Richmond, himself a pupil of the great David Bomberg, who advocated sincere and thorough observation combined with spontaneous expressionist techniques. That is why Dodd avoids referring to photographs, preferring to mediate the image himself by utilising an instinctive, vital approach, that teeters just the right side of chaos and allows for the unplanned to emerge.
Dodd enjoys the luminosity and textures of oil paint and prefers to work against a hard surface, such as board when building up an image. He also prefers to make his own frames, often reworking them as often as he does the pictures themselves, before finding a resolution.
There is always a conjuring act between intention and the unexpected in Dodd’s work. Each of the paintings he undertakes provokes new and unrehearsed challenges for him and represents a record of the pleasure found in the struggle to make it.