About Me
I am a painter who graduated from the University of Brighton with a BA (hons) Degree in Painting and an MA in Painting at Wimbledon College of Art, UAL. My studio is at Phoenix Studios in Brighton where I also teach painting.
My paintings show my two interests, one lies in the figurative, where I use paint to explore memory, place and loss. My current body of work Seven Sacraments, explores the loss of my mother through the seven Catholic Sacrament rituals.
The other is in landscape and its emulation of nature where visual research is gathered through walking, observation, drawings and photography. I gain insight from immersing myself within an environment and then taking the information to the studio where I will explore it further through paint.
Colour is important in my paintings, I use it to capture the essence of the figure and the landscape.
I use both oil and acrylic paint. I use acrylics for their versatility vividness and fun, their ability to capture an image quickly and build up layers due to the immediacy of their drying time, whilst I use oils for the the physicality of the oil paint that invokes an intrigue and pleasure when painting. The viscosity, ability to remain wet and its temperament allow for chance happenings in the painting and stumbling upon new marks and expressions. The qualities of both acrylics and oils make it possible to use paint to explore an image and the image allows me to explore paint.
Prizes and Commissions
I won the Shell Poster Commission in July 2018, it was unveiled in October in 2018 and is now housed in the Shell Heritage Art Collection at the Motor Museum in Beaulieu.
https://nationalmotormuseum.org.uk/collections/shell-heritage-art-collection/poster-commission/
Publications
A guide book to painting for the beginner and through to those who have some experience.
'If You're Bored with Acrylics, Read This Book', published by Ilex (Octopus Publishing, a member of the Hachette Group) on 5th September 2019