Artist statement

I feel the need to paint, as a way of expressing myself. I project my emotions into my paintings, as an outlet. I am a figurative painter, as I am fascinated by people, both physically and emotionally. No one person is the same, which offers endless opportunities for exploring the human condition through my art. I’m interested in psychology, and this feeds into my art.

 

I predominantly work with oil paint. Oils lend themselves to flesh so well, and are so diversable, you can thin them down and create washes and moody drips or can pile the paint on to create texture. I work on canvas, I like the softness, give  and materiality it has.

Lucian Freud and Jenny Saville have influenced my work on the figure as their depiction of flesh is so well done. More recently Rembrant, Vuillard and Degas have interested me greatly- I love how they create mood and feeling across successfully without everything being in focus or detailed. This has been a driving force in my experimentations recently.

 

I aim to express the internal, externally in my paintings. I want to affect viewers emotionally, make people think and feel, by creating moods and being able to relate to my paintings. Recently I have been interested in doing paintings with underlying emotional and psychological issues.