My work has evolved over the years through many themes and ideas, including still life, architecture and perspective, allegory, imaginary composition and most recently portraiture. But the unifying passion in all my paintings is describing a sense of space, volume, atmosphere and detail, arriving at a kind of hyper real expression of the subject matter. I am very interested in making, process and technique. My work is classically inspired and the journey to a painting can be very multi-disciplinary, often involving the construction of props, dioramas or elaborate maquettes, and the use of complex perspective.
I paint mainly in oils, although I do explore other media. My technique is extremely detailed, applying many layers and glazes to achieve a sense of space and mood. An oil painting can take months to finish. I keep working at a piece until I feel that I have arrived at an expression of palpable space and mood.
Over the past ten years I have been mainly engaged in portraiture,
from commissions to more personal work where I explore allegorical themes, such as my current series of drawings on ideas of ‘childhood ontology’.
Last year I was awarded the 1st Prize at the BP Portrait Award 2018
for my portrait ‘An Angel at my Table’, a work that tried to be a
very personal depiction of my mother whilst at the same time trying to convey a sense of the ‘Universal Mother’
