After graduating from the Royal College of Art & teaching at Wycombe Abbey School I have been a full time artist for over 10 years. I am continually inspired by coasts & landscapes to produce work for open studio events, local galleries & for commission.

The coasts around the UK and local landscapes have inspired my most recent body of work: exploring colour, texture and the ephemeral qualities of light, from the representational to abstraction.

My aspirations when I begin a piece are to evoke a sense of place. I begin a painting by immersing myself in an environment that inspires me. Quick sketches with watercolour and photographs are an initial starting point. If possible I will paint some small canvases with oil paints out in the landscape to get a really spontaneous and direct feeling for that place. I often revisit some of these areas at different times of year to see how the changing seasons have affected the quality of light, the colours & textures. Once I start work on the larger canvases I am trying to select and edit what I have seen to capture a feeling.

I use oil paint as it has an intense pigmentation which gives a fantastic sense of depth and is very versatile, moving from translucent to opaque with an application of pressure. I like to experiment with the thickness of the paint and the mark making possibilities using a variety of palette knives. I work on several canvases at the same time allowing each layer time to dry so that I can build up the paint to produce a variety of effects. I am also interested in creating a surface which has different qualities when viewed close to & from a distance and changes with the light within a space so the paintings are never static.