Artist Profile

I have been painting in some capacity or other since my schooldays, steadily working part time and exhibiting my paintings when and wherever possible.

I moved to Norwich in 1990 to take a place on a degree course and I have lived here ever since. In 2003 I turned to painting full time.

I am a figurative artist largely working in oils on canvas or canvas panel - canvas which I stretch and glue over wooden panels. These panels give me the ‘tooth’ or texture of a quality artists’ canvas while providing me with a much firmer and more stable ground. This is important for the glazing and stippling techniques I use.

As you can perhaps see from my paintings, recently I have been concentrating largely on the genre of still life, but I also have considerable experience of figure and portrait painting. I continue to work on portraits whenever possible as I find the differences in approach to each discipline helps to maintain variety in my work.

Statement

What intrigues me about still life is that it’s essentially about an implied human presence. The way objects can create a narrative value far beyond their individual worth simply by their relationships to each other in the same space. They can even suggest a sense of place and time without anything being directly stated.

I’m also fascinated by the way light reacts with objects; is reflected in them, absorbed by them, passes through them. The way this interaction for most of us, consciously or not, defines the visual world around us and how we perceive any given object. What qualities make glass look like glass for example, or metal look like metal? More than this, how do I as an artist represent these interactions convincingly in paint?

For me few have understood and interpreted these two notions more fully than the ‘Stilleven’ painters of the Netherlands in the 17th century. I have always been naturally and irresistibly drawn to their paintings and have spent a lot of time studing and trying to analyse their techniques - trying to glean bits of knowledge to adapt and apply to my own practice.

Looking at the works of such painters both consciously and unconsciously inspires me. This study continues to inform my work which, while I make no attempt to deny is rooted in the past, attempts to address timeless themes and is thus very much about contemplating and reflecting ideas relevant to contemporary life. I am after all, a product of the modern world. A fact I seek to emphasise by the use of the objects I portray.

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