MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

I see myself as an excavator.  The substance and final imagery in my work can be somewhat schizophrenic, varying as it does from a kind of psychological landscape to portraiture, albeit of the darker kind, but the process of my work is always the same. I find myself excavating what was seemingly already there.  As is the case for many artists I tend to find myself discovering the painting through process and through allowing any elements of chance, accident and circumstance to dictate the revealing of the imagery therein.  It is often only in retrospect that I understand, or see, the personal emotional relevance of any particular painting.

My style has been described as abstract, but I feel it has a place in the interim space between the abstract and the figurative.  There is a reality within it which is recognisable, but it is the kind of fleeting glimpse of reality that you can’t quite pin down and put your finger on – something fleetingly glimpsed from the corner of the eye.  It is a reality that is disrupted and perhaps reflective of our existence in this increasingly disrupted world.  These paintings emerge in a way, ‘out of one eye’. If I focus to much I lose the ethereal sense of what is emerging.  It’s always best if I leave myself and my self critique out of the process.

One of my intentions in painting is to leave space for the viewer to bring themselves into the spaces I’ve created. I like leaving things a little unsaid, a little ambiguous, to allow for a breath of life but also to create this space.  Painting is something that, even for the maker, can be reflected on and retrospectively can transcend the most mundane of intentions.  I try and leave my ego at the door of the studio. Sometimes it creeps in through gaps in the ceilings.  There is a consciousness at play but it seems to be less of an unconscious/subconscious than an accelerated consciousness where aesthetic decisions are being made speedily and without censure.  At its best it seems like it is almost a form of meditation.  At its worst it is a constant torment. Regardless I enjoy this place: one which resonates with questions – not answers.