RECENT WORK

I believe that the whole of art, religion and consciousness springs from the simple act of self recognition in another object. The earliest recorded pareidolic object, the Makapansgat pebble, shows that our ability to recognise ourselves in other things is a deep and important human urge.

My paintings often emerge from simple spontaneous collages made from a variety of found images, both personal and generic. I see elements that could be perceived as a face or body. These collages are translated, not copied, into oil, painted onto silhouetted wooden containers, like vessels or portals, containing fragmented emotive visions. The paintings evolve and are a personal search for meaning or gestalt, in a fragmented world.

Our perception of the world is a learned experience, practised through life and subconsciously agreed with others to form the structures and patterns of our subjective realities. That is not to say that nothing is real. My paintings are real objects. I sometimes experience anxiety when alone in nature, it feels real at the time but is largely a distortion. I love the sensation of moving delicious oil paint on a surface to explore light, shadow and colour. This often feels as real as life gets.