Artist
I paint land and seascapes, urban, rural, pastoral or lyrical, and pet portraits. I paint fir myself and on commission. Have a look at my online gallery, visit one of my exhibitions, or watch one of my online
My Artist Statement
As an author, my work centres around the observation of how action creates reaction, absorbing and reflecting the ambiance of the world and situations in which those reactions occur. As an artist, however, I am inspired by what has already become, and my paintings seek to reflect the drama and diversity of what we so often take for granted around us.
I work mainly in oils because I love the depth and texture that they lend to painting, although I still do some work in watercolour for its luminosity, and in pen and ink for the power of clean, bold lines. My oil paintings are never 2D, and their impasto structure is intended to draw you in and make you part of them too.
I particularly enjoy painting land, sea and skyscapes, and use the sfumato technique made famous by Leonardo da Vinci to blend and integrate colours from wild gamut to continuous whole. I often work with a limited palette, but I find all the variation I need in this and the free use of paint on canvas to manipulate light and shade, texture and smoothness.
The meaning to life is what we experience in it. I paint the meaning we experience all around us. Sometimes it is beautiful – a lilting landscape or a sunset sea. Sometimes it is harsh and ugly; a factory belching smoke, or a city engulfed in its own smog. Yet whatever it is, there is always a raw beauty to depict. My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them and discover the meaning in the raw beauty they see, whether it’s immediately obvious or more subtly underlying what is on the surface.
Check out my online gallery, teaching and mentoring services and also my book on painting: Savage Seas and Sfumato Skies.
