"'Lion & Lamb'" Painting

I am devoted to studying life, light and form.  I'm a constant student and believe that the more I understand something or can reproduce its essence, the better I can create a language of expression that the viewer can understand.  In this way, I can paint impossible scenes, as with realistic lighting or juxtaposition, any scene can look plausible and incite the viewer to dream.  Alternatively, sticking to a more rigorous realism, by distorting a person's facial features or anatomy just a tiny bit, I can say more about them than you would see if you looked at them in the flesh.

I'm fascinated by animals, humans most of all and have a compassion for wildlife and a concern for their habitats. Particular areas of interest are:
- How different animals can mirror different human characteristics. 
- Power structures such as the predator-prey relationship in the animal world.
- The human condition and our place in the universe.  

Oil Painting was love at first sight. The colours are so vibrant! The Renaissance palette i use is limited so i can mix for exact colours. Oils have a slow drying time allowing for wet-on-wet painting, which you can't neccesarily get with fast drying paints like acrylic or water colour. They also last for centuries, which i love!

I like to make large scale works as when they are seen in person, they become more than just 'paintings'. The position on the wall at eye height transforms the painting into a window, giving the illusion that it is not a 2D surface.  My portraits are mostly life-size so that you feel like the person is in the room with you.  For my series of tiled portraits I put real diamonds in the glints of the eyes to give them that little extra sparkle that white paint alone can't achieve.  Viewing a painting should be an experience and the more life-like, the more real the experience.

My influences are many. Artists, musicians and friends. Some favourites include Michelangelo for his handling of form as a sculptor and use of poetic distortion, Caravaggio for his use of light, Heironymus Bosch for his monstrous inventions, his combining of the real and imagined and his high horizons. Egon Schiele , Ai Wei-Wei, Van Gogh, John Currin, Francis Bacon, Malcolm Liepke, Norman Rockwell, Banksy and Japanese woodblock prints such as Hokusai.

The older I get, the more I believe that being an artist is a way of life.  I am creating the very way I live and work, and producing what I want to show to the world.