Whimsical Matters grew out of Misdemeanour, a collection that marked a return to a more childlike approach to creativity, unrestricted, playful, and at times deliberately naughty. Where Misdemeanour was about freedom and mischief, Whimsical Matters took that same energy and let it breathe into something warmer. Something happier.
The shift began in the studio. After a refresh that brought cleaner walls and a different quality of light, natural light landed differently, colours read more openly, and a new emotional brightness found its way directly into the work. It wasn't a conscious decision so much as a response.
These are happy paintings. When Ian paints in this state, the joy isn't incidental. It becomes the work itself. The hope is that when a piece enters someone's home, it carries that feeling with it.
Look closely and you'll find a presence in every piece. Not a figure you could name, but something living. A character that welcomes you in and invites you to explore on your own terms.
Colour is central to everything here. Combinations that shouldn't work somehow do, completely. And it's that tension between the surprising and the resolved that gives these works their energy and their life.