My main practice involves painting with oils on canvas, linen and
board. I start with a basic study of a composition idea, usually in the
form of a basic pencil drawing first, then I take it further as a small
watercolour painting as a final idea and then develop it more as the
finished oil painting. Painting on relief has also been another way
that I have been working whereby I try to create the idea of illusion
through clay that is semi-three-dimensional. The clay makes the
animals or hybrids look like they are coming alive off the surface in
order to create the element of surprise.
For finding ideas as inspiration, I use photographs of animals and
creatures in landscapes to create a visual reality that can be
convincing at times as well as terrifying and especially if I want to get
the likeness of a creature that is hybrid or alien looking in someway. I
wish to make the impossible, possible.
My work explores the themes of animal hybrids caused by either
genetic engineering, forced or natural evolution and also I have
looked at alien animal wildlife. Themes I have recently explored are
what living creatures and wildlife may look like on other worlds. I
have also looked at the idea of ‘social rejection and absence’ where
the very notion of something that is classed as ‘different’ is soon
rejected in both the human world and in the animal kingdom.
I am influenced by makers of the contemporary field such as science
fiction illustrators Wayne Barlowe, Roger Dean and Rodney
Matthews to contemporary fine artists such as Charles Avery, John
Stark, Kate Clark, Thomas Grunfeld and Richard Wathen. I am also
interested in the work of Renaissance artists of the 1400s
Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Brueghel. I am also keen on some 20th
Century surrealists Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte to name a few.