"Crocodile Suit"

I live and work in the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. My work explores the dynamic between figurative representation and the physical plasticity of paint as a medium. I use the liquidity and transparency of oil paint to suggest the physicality of location and subject, bringing closer connection and contemporary painterly expression to my work. Fragility is expressed through unpainted or sparsely formed negative spaces.

My representations are deliberately ambiguous and as much suggestive as descriptive. Painting has become something of an obsession, now spending days at a time visiting local farmers with their lambs, getting a ‘feel’ for their movements, interactions and behaviour. Gestural marks, smears, dribbles and scratched paint evoke the movement and contrasts between the visual and emotional nature of my subjects.

My paintings can be interpreted as depictions and observations of relationships and dynamics of human interactions, whilst investigating universal, timeless themes of humanity and ephemeral existence, aiming to go beyond the specifics of time and place, allowing the viewer to escape into suggested narratives.

My paintings are as much about paint as their subject matter, endeavouring to communicate and infect the viewer with my own joy of painting. 

I trained in Fine Art at Loughborough College of Art and Design, graduating in 1987 and completed a further MA with distinction from De Montfort University in 1999. I specialised in painting and have always enjoyed exploring the relationship between the form, content and processes of painting. 

Following a hugely successful solo exhibition at the Bomb Shelter in Beer on the south Devon coast in February 2010, my work is currently on show at “Gallery @ 500 Feet” in Lynton, Devon. My work was selected for the “Artwave West” summer exhibition in 2010 in Dorset. I have exhibited as part of an artist collective for SAW 2010 and 2011 and exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy in their autumn exhibition 2010. My installation of paintings "Haunting" were selected to form part of the visual art exhibition at The Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre in Taunton as part of the Inna Space Arts festival 2011.

I am a selected RWA artist member, a member of BHaam (Blackdown Hills Artists and Makers), a selected member of the artists collective, Gallery4Art and a selected member of The Recessionists artist group. I exhibit as part of these collectives and also undertake solo exhibitions of my work, as well as participation in Open exhibitions and regular exhibitions with galleries.