------------------ ARTIST STATEMENT ------------------
I am motivated to create art by the life I live. The people, the animals, and the objects demand exploration and examination.
I love the space between things and how paint can wrap around a form. I love how colour and texture can define and explain a surface.
In the last twenty years I have explored each of the traditional genres of figurative art: landscape, still life, portrait, figure, animal. I did this to explore and extend my visual vocabulary.
My primary medium is acrylic paint on canvas. I prefer it to oil paint primarily for its quick drying properties.
I generally use visual references that I have photographed or use an online resource from a photo-sharing database. I usually jump in, sketching in paint directly on the surface and building in layers.
I believe that artwork requires clear content and meaning or a symbolic underpinning. I also believe that the materials must speak as an equal partner in the artwork.I am stimulated by my experiences and visual references which stir ideas. They can be quite simple or complex.
Over my 50-year art career I have been consistent in maintaining a reference to the world in which we live and the expressive use of materials.