A Walk in the Woods Painting

I have been an artist since the 1980’s and my work has developed over that period, at times very experimental, at others more representational. My paintings are my subjective response to a place or a moment. My recent large format landscape paintings (some over two metres long) come from the experience of long-distance hikes I have undertaken in Spain and Nepal. I often set out alone with a tent and rucksack and make notes and sketches en route. Back in the studio I manipulate the composition to capture the size, majesty, or vitality of a place, and my sense of being within or walking through the landscape. In my 'performative' abstract work I have experimented using mark-making tools attached to my body to create the painting. The Dance Suite series of paintings are improvised collaborations with a jazz musician and my gestural marks create a dynamic response to the music. My work, abstract and figurative, uses strong and nuanced colour to convey mood and emotion. The dark landscapes of the Bayoul series convey not only the monstrous awesomeness of the Himalayas, but painted during 2020 they are a metaphor for the journey to find a way through the dark days of the pandemic. The Tsum Valley is a bayoul or sacred valley, and was my destination in Nepal, and this magical, holy valley also came to symbolise hope in the paintings.