Artist's Statement

I live in Cornwall and so it is the Cornish landscape that provides the inspiration for my painting.
The creeks and inlets, where the rivers meet the sea, lanes overflowing with wild flowers, woods of ancient trees and forgotten footpaths leading to the beach. Nature thrives in this environment and while the mark of man is everywhere I prefer that which is returning to the wild. I love weathered paint, brickwork that is becoming hidden by plants and the passage of time, lost and forgotten corners of gardens where the hand of the gardener is becoming absorbed by the wild wood.
My preferred media are watercolour and oils. I paint in watercolour because I like the unpredictability of the process and the sense of achievement that each painting brings. I enjoy the tradition of watercolour and many of the artists, whose work I admire, are masters in this far from simple medium. I paint in oils, on the other hand, because of my love for the intensity of colour and solidarity that they bring to my work. I feel, sometimes, an oil paintings can be almost magical as it becomes like a little window into another world. Sketchbooks are my constant companions. I firmly believe in the old fashioned notion that solid draughtsmanship is the basis for good painting and daily drawing practice is necessary to the health of the artist and their artwork.
Whatever the medium I hope to capture the light and mood of the places that I know intimately. It is as if by painting I am trying to hold on to a moment in time, the fleeting sparkle of sunlight on water, light through new leaves, the brilliance of mosses in a dark wood. My paintings are tiny slivers of the natural life that surrounds me, documented before they disappear from view. Drawing, painting and creating images of the world around me are fundamental to my experience of life and expression of this is, for me, an essential and natural way of living.