Atlantic Shore III Painting

I live in a rural environment and am fascinated by nature in all its varying seasons and colours. My approach to painting is abstract but rooted in nature -- forests, sea and lakes, moorland, natural vegetation as opposed to the cultivated variety, and places off the beaten path. The sea, which was part of my childhood environment, plays a large part in my paintings and expresses itself through colour, texture and movement. All my paintings are the end of a process and are multi-layered, adding or removing parts of each layer to convey my ideas. I mainly paint with large brushes, palette knife and sponges. Sometimes I use leaves, twigs and mosses which I collect while exploring the landscape. Colour, movement and composition are of paramount importance to me and I like to capture the essence of a place in a non-representational way. I have worked extensively with watercolour and oil as well as screen printing, but acrylic and mixed media (gels, inks, oil pastels to name a few) suit my painting style as they allow the necessary changes which sometimes have to be made for my multi-layered process.