ARTIST STATEMENT

“I am aware that my creativity is part of a process.

My art is a product of that process.

It starts with something that catches my attention (maybe from reading, listening to music or just looking) an object, colour or idea, figurative or abstract, which then engages my imagination. Organic shapes and forms, references to the natural world, half glimpsed silhouetted figures often spark my interest.

I note down my observation using both words and a rudimentary scribble or two. Sometimes ideas connect, breed and grow, transforming into something new. I keep notebooks, sketchbooks, scrap books. I daydream how best to take the idea forward, to make it exist.

I make some drawings in a sketchbook exploring shape and colour if appropriate, to better understand how I might make the final piece. The initial idea often grows and expands and I will often use collage as a means of exploring the series.

I have notes for final pieces that I know I will never make.

I find that there is a different way of working for a different idea. I like the freedom to respond to ideas in whatever medium I think appropriate. I cannot work thinking I am a prisoner of style; there is too much to explore.

For example, the "Exit" series was made in an attempt to capture feelings about the horror of 9/11 prompted by a newspaper photograph, and uses deeply textured, monochromatic acrylic. The use of colour in the final three paintings would have lessened the impact, whereas the 'Wildflower' series is a decorative, joyful response to it's subject matter using brightly coloured oil pastel and crayon.

My abstract work is not supposed to look like anything except itself but sometimes the titles, which are meant to be an easy reference tag, give the paintings an evocative identity - 'Seaqueen' or 'Dandelion' for instance.

I make my work with acrylic; ink; gouache; pencil; crayon; oil pastel and charcoal.

I explore the properties of acrylic paint creating texture using fingers as well as brushes, rags and newspaper. Overlaying the paint to create a surface history, concealing and exposing by scratching and sandpapering. Dissolving oil pastel with white spirit is also a favourite, giving lovely, soft areas over which I can add more pastel creating depth and beautiful colour contrasts and clashes.

Ideas wax and wane but my creativity has always defined the person I am from childhood.

It makes me aware that the process is ongoing.

That my art is a product of that process.”