ABOUT HIS WORK

photo by Ben Buchanan

BA in Fine Arts from Winchester School of Art, UK 1979-82.

Printmaking Exchange Programme, Virginia Commonwealth Uiversity, Richmond, VA USA 1981

Painting is for me, a juggling act: I work from sketches made in situ, when some gut feeling has compelled me to record a scene. These may be no more than a few pencil lines or coordinates, which I work on later with watercolour or pastel. So the colour comes largely from my memory, and is thus inevitably infused with an emotional response. Perhaps one out of ten of the sketches looks worthy of turning into a larger painting in oil or acrylic. So these sketches act as a springboard, but the fun begins when, in the course of painting, accidents occur which intrigue and lead in unexpected directions. So there is there is the primary authenticity, based on observation from life, colouring informed by memory/feeling, then the demands of the medium itself. It is is this third element, the fortuitous, that allows one to surpass oneself. A perfectly executed initial drawing can be a constraining element.

What is particularly thrilling is when the logic of a painting becomes apparent sometime after completion. I have long felt that life follows art, and when a painting I have made proves to have premonitory elements, it seems that something more significant than just decoration is manifest.

I am a figurative artist, specializing in oil, usually on canvas.  I have uses for acrylic and watercolour and gouache. I also enjoy printmaking,:lithography and etching.  My subject matter revolves around people, cities, landscapes and animals.