BECOMING LOST TO BE FOUND - Seascape Series
The work in this series references childhood memories of growing up along the Devon and Cornwall coastline, it revisits this time and place at a point in my life of great change and flux. As with previous work the paintings have both an environmental and a metaphorical meaning for me and operate on both those levels. They aim to capture the bleached skies, gritty beaches and rolling clouds of the south west, but are also an emotional response to an area that I feel an innate connection with. They are snapshots of the places where I was taught to swim; of bright winter days and raging storms; and of the landscapes that hold safe those memories of passing time and moments lost.
HIDDEN SPACES AND DISTANT FIRES - Riverscape Series
The paintings in this series describe a state of flux, the change from day into night, summer into winter, outward into inward. The shadows grow tall across the land. Along the river banks there are dark corners and hidden spaces. The world rotates into Autumn and Summer falls to the pathways in a confetti of petals and leaves. The winds change and the birds are blown southward in elegant displays like feathered acrobats against the clouds. Decay, woodsmoke, distant flames the smell of life in death and death in life. Inwardly turning the land becomes darker but the skies still rage with colour at dusk. Although shadows and veils race across each surface, the work holds a warmth in its heart. Although each painting is a riddle of obscured spaces and drifting mists the flames burn in the distance like dreams.
