"My work started off very much more figuratively, using city building sites as my inspiration. The structure of scaffolding very quickly took over, becoming more organic and individual. The building forms became more abbreviated, crossing boundaries between inanimate forms and human situations.

It took a trip to India, working with Indian artists, to make me realise that I needed to shed off all superficial representation, and let the forms and their relationships do the work far more powerfully. It was a complete liberation, and I felt transformed.

Now the work still relates to buildings and places, people and moments observed, but it has lost the cloak of illustration. The shapes, lines and colours speak far louder."

 

PAINTINGS ON GLASS

"This is a fascinating way of working. Everything has to be done in reverse. Not only am I working mirror-image, but the marks that lie on the 'surface' have to be applied first, and then subsequent layers added 'behind' them. The paint surface quality is completely flat, giving an almost cut-out effect. There can be no fudging of edge qualities or colours - the relationships of forms are direct and bold. The results are striking and exciting.  The glass creates a luscious depth, one that cannot be found in more conventional painting methods."

 

WATERCOLOURS

"Painting with water-based media (watercolours and gouache) has been my metier for so long that it is my first language. Unlike the oil paint on glass, I fully exploit the 'atmospherics' of the colour fluctuations, and edge variations. Space is created in the paintings in quite a different way, allowing the forms to speak in a more mysterious way.  My aim is for colours to glow out from mysterious depths, and relate to the other forms in the painting."