Artists Statement
I have been a practicing artist for decades now and the one consistency throughout my work has been my interest in the observation of the world through the various subject interests I’ve explored. Exploring an idea as a vehicle to express my observations.
This often leads to a fusion of a quite high realism and an often almost surreal expression, though really it’s more conceptual, observed realism that I’m exploring.
Take an idea and then apply the observation of the objects and content that expresses that idea. This leads to a final work that is not a simple document of what I’ve observed, but rather an expression of my imagination rooted in the world as I’ve observed it.
That tension between an idea and delivering it in a way that conforms to how I’m observing it is at the heart of my practice. Each painting presents a slew of possible interactions to explore as I work the process from the initial inception, to the final rendition.
Throughout the application I strive to keep a sense of life in the work, that very hard to categorise element that one has to feel, perhaps even intuit, rather than simply reason. It can be as simple as an unexpected placement in the composition or an addition or subtraction of another element that can bring a work to life.
