I’m both an artist and an author. As an author, my work centres around the observation of how action creates reaction, absorbing and reflecting the ambiance of the world and situations in which those reactions occur. As an artist, however, I am inspired by what has already become, and my paintings seek to reflect the drama and diversity of what we so often take for granted around us.
The meaning to life is what we experience in it. I paint the meaning we experience all around us. Sometimes it is beautiful – a lilting landscape or a sunset sea. Sometimes it is harsh and ugly; a factory belching smoke, or a city engulfed in its own smog.
Yet whatever it is, there is also always a raw beauty to depict. My goal is to inspire those who see my work to look more carefully at the world around them and discover the meaning in the raw beauty they see whether it’s immediately obvious or more subtly underlying what is on the surface.
I studied art and literature at university in London, but life has radically modified my approach to both since. 2019 saw the release of my oil techniques book, Savage Seas and Sfumato Skies – painting lyrical landscapes in brushstrokes and words, demonstrating how I paint using the sfumato technique. My painting style is a composite of smooth and textured, mimicking life – sometimes easy, sometimes difficult. I blend colour on the canvas as much as on the palette and revel in bold colours against soft backdrops.
I’ve latterly also started working in ceramics – decorative plates, animal sculptures and dioramas, connecting the vibrancy of colour with texture and substance to create their own kind of visual story.
You can find all my books and a large gallery of my paintings on my website and my painting videos are on my Thirty Minute Painter YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyJnB5SoHXi9qyh7JSvEvDQ
