Artist Statement - Revised Version!

I've been concerned ever since I wrote my original statement that it simply doesn't convey well enough the motivation behind what I do. Being honest with yourself is important as it promotes emotional and intellectual evolution that will serve to support your art. In addition to which your audience will figure dishonesty and lack of focus pretty soon which is just a poor exercise in self marketing.
I stumbled upon this post from Molly Gordon where she guides the artist through honest and authoritative writing using an incredibly simple yet illuminating vehicle. Studying this gave me a clearer understanding of my intent and consequently I feel that I've produced a statement that sums up my own direction and motivation more succinctly:


Artist Statement
Any single colour will have its own character which can foster a unique relationship with others. When I work with colour, I consider how each hue relates to an underlying or adjacent mark. Relationships can vary where two colours have the ability to integrate or repel one another. My aim is to offer combinations that create harmony, beauty and energy and to avoid coarseness. 

I begin a piece without preconception or consideration to what the finished work may be. The physical landscape of the North Downs surrounding my studio is the only vehicle I use to influence these abstract pieces. The canvas will evolve as I layer colour on each other and manipulate the transparency. Eventually a direction will establish involving colours, viscosity and flow of brush marks which I pursue until the point at which can best be described as the canvas sings to me. The result, after what is often a labour intensive process can look and feel as spontaneous as a chemical reaction. 

The momentum that a successful canvas produces gives me a sense of excitement derived from the creation of an affinity between colour, viscosity, transparency and mark-making. My real satisfaction however, comes from my audience identifying this alliance within the whole or any part of the painting. 

Acrylics are a superb medium for attaining these goals in my work. They are malleable, mix well and relatively quick drying depending on the thickness I choose to lay down. A final coat of gloss enhances the feeling of energy and character that would ordinarily be unobtainable. 

These new explorations in colour challenge an inherent resistance I had to using colours unhindered. It has been a liberating performance and experience for me and I view these new paintings as each having a life and character of their own. 

Artist's Statement

I've been busy writing up my artists statement which is intended to give anyone who visits an idea of what motivates me to paint and print. It's more of an extended profile which didn't come easily as in a sense you need to lay yourself bare to your audience if you want them to understand what you're all about and is just as much to do with building resilience. This will eventually appear on various artists network and support sites including Axis and a-n.co.uk .....It would be good to know what you think.....passers by, practitioners, anyone.....

My paintings are based on the physical world - whether it’s a landscape or figurative source I will always begin the creative process with a tangible reference point. Responding to a landscape that moves me, interpreting the dynamism created by human interaction or reflecting the excitement of optimism in what I see are among the challenges that I seek to address. The physical process of painting is vital to me. Life, light, vibrancy and movement can rarely be captured using an easel. Therefore my canvases lie directly on the floor while I apply layers of colour. Once each layer is dry I then dilute, scrape back and smear to control the relationship of each brush mark and layer with that of the underlying colour. A vermillion could look stunning against a royal blue if the transparency, viscosity and direction of each colour is correct. I have to be patient and persistent with each canvas; ten layers of colour may yield no joy when I try to interpret how I feel about my subject and yet when the relationships between the colours work, then the canvas sings to me. The result, after what can be a labour intensive and physical process, can look and feel as spontaneous as a chemical reaction.
In contrast my silkscreen prints reflect a combination of 60’s Pop Art and British eccentricity. Photographic images sit under, over or next to shapes and layers of colour in order to deliver a well designed balance between elements. Printed patterns and images can repeat in such a way as to create a deliberate chaos and consequently become new images themselves. My training and experience as a graphic designer gives me an understanding of how I can create harmony, awkwardness and humour with the images that I shoot myself to work with.
The impact of Rauschenberg, Warhol and Terry Gilliam runs deep with me and if I can produce prints with equal dynamism and darkness then I can consider myself content. These guys lived to love.