The artist: My practice is rooted in the tradition of British and European figurative painting. Working from in situ observation and executed predominantly in oils, egg tempera and watercolour, the works are a result of many hours spent working outdoors or in the studio with familiar sitters. My cast of characters relate in some way to the landscape around them, as referenced by backdrops, window glimpses or some trace of its presence. I attempt to create a link between the interior worlds we inhabit and our relationship with the land. When we move outside we also take a journey inwards into ourselves. Upon return, the experience grows in us.
My paintings are often introspective, psychologically tense and carry an undertow of pathos. Intensity of mark making ,emotional resonance and a dialectic between subjective beauty and corporal honesty typify my aesthetic. It is an excoriating process. The layering, removing and scouring of the painted surface eventually build a rich profile of the subject. In much of my work scenes are constructed from various places, bringing various elements into a composition to create a grandeur and otherworldly quality that feels uncannily real yet dislocated from reality. Feeling lies at the heart of my painting. The success or failure of a given work depends greatly on how feeling is successfully translated into a visual language.
My work often has overtones of the Northern Renaissance. I make use of traditional materials, such as lead white, and its layered application roots the work in a long tradition of painting and I hope to bring these methods into a contemporary and personal visual language.
The land is a blast furnace for the imagination - undulations taking on strange forms, sleeping figures, coffins, headstones, broken forgotten monuments flung aside by a giant harried hand.
Ultimately it is drama that I seek and it is drama that I find in the land and people I love to paint.