My landscapes are emotional spaces, driven by my desire for open spaces and solitude to think and clear my head of ‘noise’. I want to convey a silent drama, a powerful yet quiet punch to the gut and yet
it is also important to me that there is a sense of joy and beauty in the work too. It is the tension of these elements working together that I find the most exciting.
Seascapes are often suggested in my work; where I have been most content and which appear to me in profound dreams – dreams where I am searching for and often find, an often elusive feeling of intense well-being.
My process is very much one of call and response: stripping away and adding; reacting to colours, forms, marks. I often use the colour pink in my paintings – the colour of nurture, comfort and for me, optimism.
I enjoy painting in layers and creating tension between them and the markmaking. A thin thread of pastel can suggest frailty and fragility and I like to contrast these with strong, dark, opaque forms. I will use photos, sketches and collages as my inspiration for beginning and then use a mixture of intuition and purposeful exploration – creating the mood of the painting through the push and pull of the process.
I consider my work to be semi-abstract as there are often figurative or recognizable elements that I feel the need to include – a tree, a goalpost, a bridge – and yet there are also naïvely drawn motifs. I feel this conflict adds to the tension.
