Hot Colours in the Merton Beds, Oxford Botanic Gardens Painting

Me, the artist - this is how I do it: Sometimes I work en plein air, but that’s not easy with large canvases, so I usually begin with quick sketches outdoors. I record the shapes, the colours, contours, shadows, the weather, the mood. I take lots of photographs. Then, back in the studio, I transform this collection of images and impressions into paintings which are semi-abstract in style. But then, all painting is abstract in a sense; painters abstract elements of colour, light and energy from the interplay of patterns before them. My technique, if you can call it that, allows me to achieve a tension between looseness and control, moving between spontaneity and deliberation. The intention is to make paintings that interpret the natural world - the sheer untidiness of it, from the summer exuberance of a herbaceous border in a cottage garden to the intricate assemblage of wild beauty in an autumn hedgerow. Portrait work is another matter. Making landscapes feels like working outwards, but when I’m making portraits, I’m working inwards – of course, I’m painting the effect of light on the surface of skin, a face or a hand – but in a way, I’m looking into the interior of the person to discover what's there, in effect, the interiority of the subject. I prefer to make full-figure pieces because this allows a greater narrative. Winner of Oxford Mary Moser Award, 2018 Selected as one of TOP 5 at The Other Art Fair, London Oct 2017, by Art Aesthetics. 'One to watch and definitely one to buy ...'