"Restless" Painting

I’ve always been creative, I was brought up by artist parents and from day one art was part of my life. Since dropping out of an academic degree at age 19 I’ve trod my own creative path via textiles and illustration, arriving at painting in recent years, and this is the place I want to stay. Often what pulls me into the studio is simply envisaging the utterly basic act of putting paint on a surface, or imagining a pairing of colours. It’s like thinking about my favourite food. I adore the visceral, raw process of painting. I paint intuitively with a conscious effort to remain in the subconscious (if that’s not too paradoxical!) I try to resist analysis as I paint, because analysis breaks the spell and invites the demons in.

Colour has always been a fundamental force in my work, in particular colour that contrasts and verges on clashing in unexpected combinations - I get a kick out of almost-ugliness. Large paintings excite me, I like to get my body involved. I like to get to that point where the painting pulls something out of me that’s been submerged. I’ve rediscovered a kind of anarchic energy in painting, after years of sitting in front of a computer doing neat digital illustraion.

When I paint I launch myself at the canvas, just getting marks, scribbles, paint on there and then I keep going until something sparks or snags my attention - a point of interest that invites me to pursue it. I’ve been going through cycles where I end up getting a bit formulaic about what I’m painting, and then I have to break my own self-imposed rules (this needs a figure now) but I’m learning (or allowing myself) to trust my instinct and let each painting be itself without any regard to what I think it should be. I’ve arrived at a hard-won place where self-monitoring is turned down low and instinct allowed to reign free, and themes of introspection, defiance, loneliness, longing, nostalgia and humanity are the subconscious guides.