I've been painting many of the same things as I did before, but trying always to be less fussy and more pared down. I keep asking myself "Why am I painting this? What is it that attracts me or challenges me? What do I want to say by painting it?"

One of my motives, I'm sure, is about valuing the commonplace and the everyday. I like the idea of getting people to look at the things we have around us and seeing them slightly differently. Sometimes the most ordinary objects are beautiful, sometimes ordinary places have special atmospheres.

I'd like to be able to use paint to say something about the big issues which concern me -
migration and the desperate sadness of losing one's homeland,
extreme nationalism, its small-mindedness and ultimate selfishness,
the climate crisis and our refusal to see where we are headed.
But I haven't yet found a way of doing this which isn't preachy. I'll keep working on it.

In the meantime, come and visit me in my studio during Artweeks and see what I have been doing.