The use of the computer in painting is in its infancy. While the available technology has steadily moved forward over the past twenty years, the culture of painting - the way painting is thought about, taught, made - has not changed at the same pace. Laptops are now common accessories in studios, along with broadband connections, scanners, camera-phones, drawing tablets, high quality printers. Yet critical writings, exhibitions addressing any accompanying shift in approach are comparatively rare. Twenty years from now the typical painter's studio may well be as unrecognizable. Project Painting Update is an initiative to monitor the effects of this changing 'studio interface'.

Initially the computer was associated with art forms that employed visual 'systems', or art that addressed 'technology'. With the advent of paint programs there was no barrier between the digital and the painterly. But this raised anxieties as to whether a printed canvas, an image on a screen, was as authentic as a hand-made mark. By dwelling more on the perceived limitations of 'virtual' art forms, less attention has been directed at the creative potential. Preconceptions about what makes painting 'real' pass unchallenged, and features in advanced software are left unused. Meanwhile, advances in computer graphics, in input and output devices, are driven by the entertainment industry, and will continue developing regardless of whether artists use of them or not. The aim of 'Project Painting Update' is to ensure the relevance of such advances are more widely recognised.