U.K. artist based in Tamano, Okayama prefecture, Japan. Landscapes, imagined or otherwise, and abstraction.
Some words about my practice
Many artists have only one process which they methodically use to produce the perfection they seek in every piece but in my case how my paintings evolve is not so straightforward.
My work is led according to my feelings at that moment, not restricting myself to one style or subject, sometimes landscapes from life, photos or my imagination, sometimes completly abstract.
I will often start to paint in order to capture the subject exactly as I had planned and yet at times strangely the picture seems to paint itself through my hands. I start with an idea and finish with something very different, eventually snapping out of the daze with a painting that has magically appeared in front of me, sometimes complete, sometimes needing more work and occasionally the palette knife has to come out, the paint is scraped off and I start all over again.
I paint relying heavily on intuition rather than calculation which I suppose is how I live my life. This can work well or be very stressful as you can probably imagine. It may not be unique but it works for me. I am interested in so many things it’s hard to focus on just one so I try to just go with the flow.
I experiment with various styles of landscape painting having different focuses, however recently I realised that my paintings I am most drawn to have a quiet, tonal quality. I feel fortunate this style has chosen me as I love the atmosphere tonalism creates and how by using just two or three neighboring colours it can induce a sense of calmness, a state I find myself in only when painting. I hope this feeling is conveyed to the viewer through my tonal works.
My abstract paintings are purely a form of expression which I started solely as a break from painting landscapes. Now I create abstract paintings because I enjoy the process and freedom of building a painting intuitively and I find the results interesting. There is no meaning and no planning, only the act of painting.