When I paint, I'm working towards an honest statement about what I see, and searching for ways to express the fascination which first drew me to a subject. I find painting hard and often frustrating work, but I love it. Sometimes the beauty of a scene is clear, sometimes it needs to be teased out over a period of time. Technically, the whole process of converting three dimensions into two, and reflected light into a solid surface of coloured paint, is constantly exciting to me.
I think of myself as a tonal painter, in that I'm usually trying to maintain the tonal values I see as accurately as possible, while I feel more free to be adventurous with colour. Most of my oil painting is done "en plein air", in front of the subject, and my style is generally representational in terms of the physical elements of a scene. I hope to convey a delight in the visual world which might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
