I was having lunch with my friend Sally when I asked her what she thought I should call my timelapse painting movies. Sally said “So, they are like stories in paint. Or paint stories.” Well that seemed immediately perfect. So I asked if she would mind me using that term (PaintStories) to describe my time lapse movies from now on. She said yes. That was Wednesday 7 December 2016. The birth of the idea. Thank you Sally.

What is a PaintStory?

The concept is evolving, but in it’s most basic form a PaintStory is a little video of me filming myself painting and telling a story of significance to the people in my community.

Here are two examples.

Alone or as part of a series—PaintStories are a purposeful way for artists to take part in the new economy. A PaintStory can illuminate issues of communal concern. And the level of engagement they inspire is amazing.

In the Hope: From Robe to Riches PaintStory I have created a number of episodes (including the two above), interviews with artists and videos of the actual paintings in the exhibition. I combine these with posts, instagram imagery and videos of me explaining how things work in the background. All of this content lives in the Hope: From Robe to Riches domain and tells the story of that project.