"Autumn Stream" Painting

My work as a painter has taken me on a path of unfolding creative discoveries, from meticulous representation to joyful abstraction. Inspired by the Wealden British countryside where I live, my artworks reveal a shift in focus from the natural world outside to the nature of my own being. Today, I paint not directly from observation or imagination, but from a kind of arousal - a sense that something wants to be born.

When I am able to work aligned with the moment-to-moment dictates from within, I feel something profound and unfathomable expressing itself through me. Finding myself in that zone is perhaps the biggest challenge.

I was born in Brighton during the sixties and was fortunate to have grown up in a creatively stimulating atmosphere that fed my artistic interests from an early age. As an adolescent I also had a number of spiritually transformative experiences that altered my worldview and deepened my perspective on life.

Graduating with a BA (Honours) Degree, I began my professional career first as an illustrator and then as a landscape painter working primarily in oils. After winning the Sussex Open Visitors’ Award at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, I relocated to the countryside, driven by a love for nature and fascination with natural phenomena.

I became less interested in capturing something than in setting something free. This led to departure from a traditionally figurative approach toward an exploration of abstract forms, mark-making, surface relief and qualities of contre-jour or inner light.

I love the sensuality of paint, preferring it to possess a little life of its own and my practice utilises the expansive fluid possibilities of acrylic paints and mediums. Working horizontally on absorbent grounds, I allow the paint to self-level and interact dynamically, resulting in organic, thickly flowing textures and luminous colour fields.

The character of paint marks, their relative colour, tone, transparency, viscosity, movement and so on, and the relationship between them, are what I am now invested in. The work communicates through perceptive recognition of these qualities, juxtapositions and dynamics.

Inspired by Zen and Eastern calligraphy, I use spontaneous, intuitive gestures to translate emotional energy directly onto the canvas in a way I hope resonates with the viewer. No conceptual understanding is required, only an open heart.