Artist’s Statement

Growing up in 70s and 80s Birmingham, a city known for its post-war, concrete, modernist architecture, and in contrast with my love of the work of the great luminaries of the 19th and 20th centuries; Monet, Matisse, Picasso, Klimt (to name a few), I suppose, subconsciously, I wanted to counter those urban childhood memories and explore more fantastical subject matter and stimulating colour palettes.

Though I occasionally create cityscapes in a naive style, most of my paintings feature imagined landscapes; trees dominate, sometimes used to symbolise a spiritual entity, and abstracted plantlife thrives in harmony with ornate pattern. Using acrylic paint, scratching, dotting and surface printing techniques, I cover the surface of the canvas with decorative motifs and stylised flora to maximise the visual impact on the viewer, and, ultimately, evoke a sense of escapism. Pattern and its orderly nature appeals to me greatly, and I like to bridge the gap between traditional painting and the graphic ‘flatness’ I’ve been exposed to through my visual interests and studies over the years.

More recently, I’ve been applying gold leaf to further embellish the work and add to this sense of opulence. Where possible, I like to explore the relationship between complementary colours and the scientific reasons, when certain colours are placed side by side, they suggest three dimensional depth or light. The possibilities are fascinating and endless.