About painting

My art work is grounded in drawing and my preferred method of working is en plein air. Many of the subjects which inspire me have grown from close observation of the movement of light on subjects within close proximity of where I am living either permanently or as a visitor at any one time.

I am inspired fundamentally by landscape and love capturing the often fleeting effect of light on a daily familiar landscape or object seen in a sudden moment of intense observation.

My work of late has become more abstracted in its end result, as I try to say more with less, but is always based on the underlying strength of good drawing. I need to feel a sense of structure and balance in the compositional elements of my work, no matter how far from absolute figurative representation that work may evolve.

My aim is that the observer will feel the same sense of excitement in response to the subject that initially inspired me to make the work, and I recognise that often such a response does not need to be as fully explained in terms of detail and accurate figurative representation as may at first be thought.

We are all bombarded with the visual in our everyday lives and the viewing audience has become extremely sophisticated at reading images of all types.

Making art work seems to have become a very different task in the early 21st century, but it is a task which I remain committed to exploring.