'Longing' Painting

I am a contemporary painter living and working in Nottingham, UK. My paintings are expressive and powerful with a vibrant use of colour. Having worked in the past with abstract and figurative styles, my current work combines elements of both. I paint primarily with acrylics on canvas and board but often incorporate other media in order to create surfaces with texture and interest. Having a deep love of process, I'm engaged in a continual quest for new ways of creating image and mark. A fascination with people and place drives my subject matter which explores relationships between humans and their habitats, between humans themselves and between the human and the self. I've been a practising artist for just over 30 years. Initially I was studying for a degree in European Studies at the University of Hull, but I left the course to pursue a more creative direction. I began my career in textiles, spending 15 years working with machine embroidery, creating pieces which I exhibited and sold in the UK and abroad. Ultimately exhausting what I felt that medium had to offer me, I moved in a more commercial direction and began working with digital illustration, adapting some of the ideas that I'd begun using in textiles to create cards and prints. I ran a successful greeting card business for a number of years, but again reached a point where the medium lost its appeal. I've painted on and off throughout my career, and it's painting with its versatility and tactile, elemental qualities that I've eventually come to realise is my true calling.