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LOOKING AT THE PAINTINGS
Most - and all recent ones - are shown entire with accompanying details (click on the link beneath the title), which enables a close-up view of the paint surface, something of crucial importance. I am indebted to Richard Henderson for making this possible (www.key-skills.co.uk). It gives a much better idea of technique and textural qualities; a small amount of imagination can extend this impression to the entire painting.
Recently however, because of drying problems with the paint I use - a problem incidentally which has also foxed the makers, I have adapted my technique from what someone called "vigorous and disturbed impasto" to a more pasted appearance (see for example the detail in the painting The Girl on Blackthorn Hill #1). I don't believe richness has been compromised. It has been an interesting diversion down an unexpected byway; as often happens, such detours can lead to mysterious places.
Work is based on reality - on "objects interrupting light". Portraits, landscapes and figure studies provide the rigour and discipline necessary to impregnate paintings and fuse these elements. On top of this, the very act of painting is a magical business - forever throwing up new possibilities, stark or subtle. Titles are often essential clues to the germ of a painting.
Preoccupation with ecology and recycling has encouraged me to prey upon 'rubbish' and many of my paintings are therefore of 'odd' (non-standard) dimensions; this quality makes them unique from support to surface and, as such, as individual as children.
Oils
Drawings
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