Artist

“ for silent poetry; a vacation; a peaceful bathe or a wild flame” ‘why I paint’ by Josie d’arby

Artists Statement

Hello again, as a self taught artist my work tends to be spontaneous. Working from instinct, often with bold marks and thick applications of paint. It’s a little unruly, and so by nature the work is niche and i love that. It’s a connection thing.

I am inpsired by the spectacular colours we find all around us , be that blossoming trees, tropical scenes or simply in everyday life. But no one can compete with God so all art is so humbling in the way it puts you in your place, the most you can do is copy or interpret , and that’s wonderful, that for me is true art, it should humble the artist not inflate. So a variety of real and imagined colours decorate my pieces, in an attempt to still arrive at a place, that is honest and satisfying. Nothing jars.

My first love is painting the Human body and face ( and the faces of animals too) . As a recluse , in reality I am not around people all that much , but in my painting, I encounter new faces all the time , faces I have made up. Sometimes of course, I can see myself in everyone I paint, especially painting from imagination, but these people do not exist and that is fascinating to me. How many billions of people have walked the earth and yet still the infinite variety goes on. I also love portraits and enjoy finding the likeness, so I also explore self protraiture too. It is the process that fascinates me , I cannot repeat myself even if i try. Art can give us pause to take our time and really look. The face and body language cannot truly hide what they express, which is why it’s the subject I come back to again and again, because as a story teller , character and communication are cornerstones of my work, a boy drinking a glass of water in the midday heat, an old woman quietly sitting , a man with a strong yet kind face stares at you, someone is reading, there’s what we see and what we don’t see, all the time.

And what’s not to love about painting The landscape. For it’s beauty and brutality , and how we are shaped within it, but most of all for what it can express to us. My landscape style is abstract / impressionism and my work is also quite childlike in its naivety . Because it was a long time before i discovered the joy of wild open spaces, I do in some ways paint as a child, with a joy, brevity and sense of fun and discovery.

These are the motives and subjects of my work. To convey ultimately, something positive, in laconic beauty or humour, finding and holding onto the light reality within the darker reality that so often surrounds.