Artist Statement

Much of my work is based on the theme of urban lonliness. How, amongst the swarming mass of people that is the modern city, an individual can still feel alone and isolated. How a person can feel awkward and ill at ease in a world which he, as a member of society, has helped create. The alienated person, feeling removed from the real world will often float between his imagination and reality. Henri Charrière wrote about this. During his time in solitary confinement while in prison in French Guiana, he described how he would enter a dreamlike state for hours on end to the point where he was experiencing a type of halucination. My paintings attempt to incorporate this dreamlike quality amongst an atmosphere of bleakness.

Previously I have used photography in my work, but at the moment I work almost exclusively in oil on canvas. I like to use vast swaths of deep blue hue to help induce a mood of reflection in the viewer. Through use of unsettling perspective and vigorous brush strokes contrasting with areas of flat colour I create paintings which are often dark and apocalyptic and stimulate the imagination.

I draw influence from the shapes of the city around me, the writings of Jung and Freud, and the paintings of de Chirico, Hopper, Whistler, Pollock and Richter amongst others.