Il Gatto Painting

My prime motivation for painting is quite simply the actual mental and physical process of creating an image. From the initial inspiration and development of the idea, using a combination of traditional drawings and sketches to digital collage and iPad drawings culminating with the final oil painting onto canvas. Striving throughout the whole process to capture the core essence and mood of the original concept but also open to the idea of taking the image to somewhere I hadn’t imagined. I divide my time between London and Cortona, Italy these contrasting locations provide much inspiration.Themes that I attribute to this hybrid life of city and countryside include man’s fleeting embellishment of nature, the ivy covered ruin of castle on a hill beyond the motorway, slicing through the landscape. I am interested in the idea of ‘once upon a timeness’ of life, it’s stories, memories of childhood real and semi imagined, with its hovering and presence of a half-understood world.