Forests of the Night Painting

My paintings are a spontaneous response to the experience of being in the landscape. By using glaze layers, bold gestural marks and impasto to suggest mood, visual and tactile interest, I want to convey not only what the landscape looks like but how it feels. There is a rippling sensuality in natural textures, I am fascinated by shadows and reflections made by seasonal change and natural light. My painting activity follows the seasons, I want to convey how the landscape changes during the year, expressing in paint what print fails to do. Transforming a blank canvas into a painting is an exciting process. Painting is a co-operative affair between the artist and the canvas, the first mark is crucial and dictates the direction the painting will take. Hopefully a good outcome results. I admire and am influenced by traditional landscape artists like Turner, Constable and Gainsborough, as well as more recent artists such as the French Impressionists, Sir William Nicholson and his son Ben Nicholson, Piet Mondrian, Nicolas de Stael, Paul Klee and Sean Scully and many others.