I am primarily concerned with the human condition, the inevitability of death, the anxiety of existence.
I paint with a knife, charcoal and graphite sticks. I slash, stab, gouge, flick, smear, drip, cut the paint, working as fast as possible in order to release the emotional energy that will charge the painting with a raw vitality.
I emphasize the painted mark, rejecting slick, pristine surfaces, searching for a more primitive, untamed energy. I use the graphite to cut back into the paint.
Painting is like a battle. You may start with a plan but once you begin, you are working with your wits, using chance, searching for an opening.
I experiment with the paint, adding oils to make the paint more visceral. I like paint to look like paint. I try to push the paint as far as it will go.
I reject the easel. I cut canvas straight from the roll and tack it to the wall. This gives a surface that can really be attacked.
When I'm not painting, I work from the masters.
I attempt to convey a sensation, to get across the brutality of truth, to lock the subject's energy in paint.
1972 Born Wolverhampton
1991 Studied at Sheffield Hallam University
1993 Lived and worked in Wolverhampton
1997 Lived and worked in Leeds
1998 Lived and worked in London
1999 Studied at Wolverhampton University
2002-present Lives and works Wolverhampton
Exhibitions
2010 Outline, Volte Galleries, Wolverhampton (16th - 30th April)
2009 Earth-Water-Concrete-Steel-Brick, Lloyd Gill Gallery, Weston-Super-Mare
2008 Ten to One, Lichfield Passage Gallery, Wolverhampton
2008 Birmingham paintings, Art in a Window Gallery, Birmingham