Detail from:- If You Look Hard Enough

My work is always conceptual. The finished work is just part of the creative idea. For me it is what the work represents, the creative thinking behind the image, which is of the greatest interest. I love playing with ideas and attempting to enter the mind of the viewer to share and compare experience and perception. Inspiration comes from an eclectic range of sources such as old and new philosophical ideas, popular culture, science, dance, poetry, mythology and ancient sources. A large dose of humour is usually part of the mix. I'm interested in paint, not as a material to create an illusion, but rather as a substance to be experimented with and celebrated. I like to explore the way paint moves and performs on the canvas with various textural elements. This produces a variety of fascinating sculptural and textural qualities. Often I include materials such as sand, gravel, pumice, and pieces of canvas and hessian. This builds up to give a beautiful and fascinating surface that has a sculptural quality and encourages touch and sensation as well as visual awareness. Additions are collected from places I have visited around the world. The physical act of applying paint I see as an exhilarating form of ritual, a dance and a demonstration of a moment of perception in time. I like the work to have a strong visual impact and to be interesting close up as well as from a distance. For me Art is a fascinating journey that provokes the continuous irresistible discussion of: "What is Art?"