Reflections
‘My paintings reflect different stages and moods, not just one theme – some follow a theme of experimentation, some are reflections on travel or memories. I don’t limit myself to a certain school or subject but express my ideas in my own ways, be it figurative, landscape or abstract.’
I don’t usually approach a painting with a planned idea, composition or subject, and rarely sketch in preparation for a painting. I enjoy the challenge of facing a blank canvas and letting the flow and process develop from there. So if a figure or building appears that is not my only aim, I enjoy the process itself. I use oil colours, watercolours, acrylics and other media on different surfaces. I love to experiment with colours and different surfaces. Painting to me is not a matter of mastery only but a matter of feeling.
In pictures, what I want to achieve is the value of painting. I believe a painting tells its own story and as an artist I may talk about it, but that’s only to do with the process and how I work – it adds little to the painting itself. My hope is that, when a viewer sees my paintings, they can be haunted, stopped in their tracks, made to take longer and have a connection, not just a casual glance.
I don’t use titles because I feel that they limit the visual communication between the viewer and the picture. For displays and exhibitions I also avoid numbers in sequence, to avoid interpretation of the importance of one picture compared to another.
Usually I have more than one painting that I’m working on at a time. I don’t like sticking with one picture if the mood is not right, so I leave it aside. Quite often when I’m working on one picture I’ll jump and pick up another one that I’ve left for some time and then carry on with that one.’