The discovery in 1992 of the Eremo di Santa Caterina, a small hermitage on the Italian island of Elba, kindled a flame in Duncan Bullen which, after three residencies, still burns with intensity. It was not so the location or physicality of the place, but its isolation and tranquillity that has enabled him to reflect on, and develop his own philosophical vision. The clear air, ever-changing light, the night sky and the architectural imagery all concentrated his mind … Over the following years, Bullen has proposed the problems of not only defining the origins of structure, colour and light, but the manner in which they can all be recorded and incorporated in his paintings. The windows in the Eremo their view to the heavens, the candle light defusing and reducing known colour, the arcs in the buildings all become essential ingredients and form the framework on which transparent veils of the colour of light and shade clothe and shroud the surface. But are they the light and dark of colour or the colour of light and dark? Or is it important that none are true or faithful to our perception of a particular colour, but are conceived from the total experience of its vast range as one sees it.

William Jackson, Hermetica, Jill George Galley, 1999