Animals, Birds and Trees
I am inspired by the natural world, sometimes a whole landscape but more often a detail, a tree, a close-up of branches or roots or an etched pattern on rock. Among these images one can find birds and animals whose stylised shapes echo the colours and contours of their surroundings, not immediately obvious, only to emerge gradually as the eye becomes accustomed.
Figures in Landscape
Like my birds and animals my figures in landscape are exactly that, part of the living, moving landscape, blending with their surroundings. I dont intend these figures to be the subject of my painting rather an incidental to be discovered.
Portraits
To paint a portrait is to somehow capture an essance of your subject, more than is obviously visual, quite hard if you dont know the person.
To paint a portrait of a family member, my own children for instance, the problem is to retain a visual likeness while keeping everything else about them at bay.
It is impossible to capture an entire person in a portrait but if I manage to catch just something I recognise, I'm happy.
Horse and Human
A series of paintings portraying the relationship between people and their horses, inspired by the agricultural shows of North Yorkshire, Portuguese horse fairs and the traditional Spanish Romeria.
What fascinates me most is the dramatic difference in scale between person and a large animal especially in the case of the great shire horses….and yet there is trust and companionship allowing a valuable working relationship.
I try to capture the extreme and restrained strength of these powerful beasts and also the calm familiarity horse and human share.
Recent works
A selection of paintings created in the last year or so.
I've been working on a number of small pieces on paper recently, experimenting with a mixture of mediums. Watercolour pencils, pastels, acrylic and chalk allow for more delicate and detailed small scale work than oil on canvas. I wonder where it will lead!
