Hollow Earth Painting

I live and work in North Yorkshire, UK. My main focus is on painting, but I’m also involved in printmaking, photography and sound-manipulation projects. Over the years I have developed and refined my own eccentric mixed-media techniques, using them to create lustrous surfaces reminiscent of the rich glazes of studio ceramics. The tones shift according to the play of the light, making my paintings difficult to reproduce accurately in print or photographs. I am unusual (maybe unique?) amongst professional artists in having a doctorate in philosophy . Despite this, my art is intuitive rather than academic. I paint images that pop up from some dark and shadowy part of my mind, as surprising to me as to anyone else. What does a particular picture ‘mean’? That’s for you to decide. The kind of art I’m interested in is about understating rather than stating; creating mysteries, not resolving them. My best paintings are, I hope, both naive and sophisticated – finely balanced between funny and sad, bitter and sweet, day and night, toast and marmalade. As for influences, I prefer to read, listen to music and travel rather than visiting art galleries. That said, discovering the work of Paul Klee as a teenager was a liberating experience. I loved the small scale of his work and his restless energy. And he was the first ‘respectable’ artist I came across who clearly felt it was possible to be funny and serious at the same time. You can find out more about my working methods and my inspiration on my website, . My work is in private and corporate collections in the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA, and my exhibition sponsors include multinational telecommunications company Vodafone plc.