The starting point for Stephen Palmer’s recent paintings and drawings is a model made from a sheet of white or black A4 paper that has been defaced through a series of actions. The paper may be first scribbled on with blue or red biro, or with coloured pencil. Sometimes more defined geometric shapes are added also in biro or pencil. It is then folded, screwed up, ripped and finally unfolded as if an attempt has been made to once again make the paper good. Many of these models get discarded before one of them seems right to be the subject of a painting or drawing, rendered in acrylic, gouache or pencil on another sheet of A4 or an A4 panel. The resulting works reflect both an undoing of formal geometry, grid systems and mark making, and a celebration of negation as a positive, creative act.