Marbled marvels

Look carefully, and you'll see that these paintings bear much resemblance to paper 'marbling' - a colourful craft technique used to make the patterned endpapers found in old-fashioned books. This is not surprising, as the artist, Andre Thomkins (1930-1985), employed a similar technique. Carefully floating oily paint on the surface of water, Thomkins manipulated it to make delicate designs, which he then carefully transferred onto sheets of paper. The results are fabulously trippy. They're relevant not just to their historical time period (an earnest 60s psychedelia) and ours (a knowing, retro-ironic psychedelia), but also to something much more timeless and universal - something properly cosmic.