As far as art is concerned, I have been painting seriously for 12 years, and gave up my full-time day-job (estate-agency/real estate/whatever you like to call it) in order to devote more time to it. Since I don't like to write about my work, unless I'm positively pressed to do so, I can probably do no better than to include a few photos, along with my current artist statement, which runs as follows:
For me, painting has become a continuous progression of problem solving and decision-making, my practice currently a combination of carefully planned geometries and unconscious gesture all the while embracing the "happy accident".
I use collage extensively, working on board in acrylic and graphite over cropped and digitally enhanced map fragments depicting parts of the country which are significant to me, whether in an intimate day-by-day way, or through a single cherished visit. They are "site-specific" in that they are based on and inspired by the notion of "landscape", but are not representational of the landscape. Rather, in the same way that a particular song can transport on e back not only to a different place but also to a different frame of mind or period in one's life, they represent a less-conscious reaction to the memory of a place and my emotional response at the time I was there.
An initial network of lines and colour provides me with a structure on which I am free to paint, covering some elements completely, perhaps under several layers until the right tone or compliment to adjoining blocks of colour is decided upon, whilst leaving others clear and easily identifiable, using the lengthy process to distill my thoughts and memories into some sort of abstracted, personalised documentation.
I generally make pieces that are part of a series, as I like to take a germ of an idea or image from the spontaneity of initial sketches and studies through to a natural and fully realised conclusion, finding out in a methodical, practical way what works and what doesn't. Some elements of a previous series are kept in play throughout, others discarded for a while or perhaps held back for future use.
I am interested in the shared ground between the figurative and the non-figurative, and can swing between the two with relative freedom, not from a place of indecision, but probably out of a stubborn desire not to be pigeon-holed. Although the nature of the work can change from time to time, it is only when looked at as a whole that a sense of progression is easily identified.
A drummer since childhood, much of my art-work is rhythm-based, with repeated patterns, motifs and sharp accents. I am also moved by the greater rhythms of nature - waves and tides, weather fronts, the seasons, and by the beat of Man's hand upon the landscape - ploughmarks on chalky downland the line of an ancient hedgerow.
Had a big show at the Hastings Arts-Forum this time last year, which despite the time of year was successful both critically and financially. Sold some paintings and loads of stoneware pots that I had made leading into xmas, and received good press from the folks who visited. Have been toying with the idea of going in for another solo-show down there this year, but thanks to my inactivity art-wise during 2008, have probably decided to leave it til 2010.
So that just about covers it. More later - having a bit of a painting famine at the moment, as the muse has left me, but I feel it won't be long.....
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