About

I make paintings of invented landscapes that explore ecology, mythology and place. The images emerge through revision, erasure and return. I rarely work from direct observation. Instead, paintings develop through a process of searching, where fragments accumulate and unexpected relationships appear. There is often the suggestion of a story, though never a fixed narrative. I work towards the point where the image begins to surprise me.

I keep returning to landscape as a way of thinking about the relationship between people and the more-than-human world. Woods, fields and shorelines are recurring subjects, alongside the ecological concerns that surround them. I’m interested in what it means to make landscape paintings at a moment of environmental instability. What happens when the boundaries between human, animal and plant life become less certain. Myth and folk story often provide a way into these questions, offering forms and ideas that challenge clear distinctions between culture and nature.

Place begins with walking. Landscapes revisited over time become both familiar and strange. These places find their way into the paintings, translated rather than described.

Humour helps hold these ideas in balance. It introduces a note of absurdity and keeps the work from settling into certainty.

And then there is the paint itself. I want the material to remain active and visible. Paint pools, crusts, ruptures and settles. It behaves a little like weather, a little like a landscape forming. I’m interested in what happens when the medium starts to push back against my intentions. That’s usually where the painting becomes most alive.