Artist Gallery

Utilising my preference for oil I like producing landscapes generated with a mix of drama and light from my home studio. Colours are mixed on sheets of glass or old plates rather than a specific mixing palette; using a large flat brush which can provide the necessary inferred detail on either primed canvas or timber board. My work is honest and instinctive. I find my best work is often done when I am not quite conscious of what I am doing.

The work that I see and later try to paint can be triggered by almost anything, the sheer obvious included - I remember as a child sitting on a bus and in front of me on the glass window was a small but quite beautiful landscape, a sunset I believe, it was in fact a tomato that some one had thrown against the window and it had splattered to leave a lovely little image, an image available to everyone. I haven't spent my life since then constantly looking for squashed tomatoes but I do think that images will find you.

I love music and sometimes that has the ability to paint images for you. I often sit and re-construct an image in my head, changing colours, moving horizons and trying different ideas. Sometimes, but not always, doing this can save a lot of time and wasted paint.

On one of my regular trips to London, I went to take in St Paul's Cathedral and reproduce it on my return. I did this and worked on it for quite a long time. The final piece was very tight, very logical and so St Paul's Cathedral. However, I had fallen into my own trap and simply become absorbed in building bricks and the result, however representational, totally lacked soul. Later on I approached the same subject from a different and more familiar angle and the result, which took far less time, was much better. It was livelier and vibrant with a sense of drama and retaining the necessary ingredients to initiate that it was St Paul's. In this case, as in many, less certainly means more! This is a technique I always try to adhere to.

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