Artists Statement

I work across visual and verbal/written art forms, creating fields in which meaning may arise. There is no single word to describe this but the outcome is perhaps more performative than illustrative.

I have written poetry when I couldn’t get to the studio, and painted intensly too. Both practices now hold equal weight with me.

My current work (2023-5) is a series of paintings on identical 100x100 cm stretchers. This dimension is physically comfortable, and it suggests no subject matter.

No two paintings are the same. I begin with an open mind, a blank canvas, and a wide choice of materials. Each start is similar to a meditation; sensations arise, I am curious, and the first marks flow from there.

When painting, I do not choose a subject matter or colour pallete, but my decisions become more specific as the work develops. Sometimes works proceed speedily to conclusion: others take many months to conclude.

I aim to work instinctivley. The work tends to develop in layers and to stop when a representational image ‘appears’. This is a facinating thing; no matter what I do, representation creeps in. If I didn’t stop at that point, my process would have to change.

I hope the final work is interesting, and stimulating to the viewer. Perhaps the piece resists catagorisation, or suggests a specific meaning to someone that I could never have anticipated. Poetry and painting are both open ended in that way, so I am good with that.