Artist Statement

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My aesthetic response to the environment in which I live has informed most of my painting, drawing and printmaking over the past ten years or so. The landscape of Norfolk, especially the rivers, still waters and trees, with their unique forms and variety, have provided enormous scope for creating images.

 

The starting points for my drawings, paintings and prints is often a familiar place or observation at a particular moment in time and point of view - dependent upon fleeting changes in light conditions and atmosphere. I have often selected particular subjects for their emotional impact or evocative charge. 

 

The Norfolk landscape is heavily cultivated and increasingly shaped by human forces and climate. Environmental impacts are continually altering and sometimes threatening, both the landscape and the wildlife that continues to cling to the margins. 

 

I am particularly drawn to subjects that record the impact of human activity and presence; subjects in which industry or incident have left a visible mark or some physical remains. Occasionally during my walks and wanderings, I stumble upon images and unique forms of nature with anthropomorphic evocations, increasing the impact, the sense of mystery and fascination. While some forms are chosen for their suggestive or associative qualities, at other times, the compositional properties, abstract patterns and textures tend to dominate the work and take centre stage.

 

My subjects are frequently influenced by the observed world, and seek to enrich a sense of place that seems to impress itself on the senses between subject and seen. More recently, this has developed into a preoccupation with particular subjects, found forms and corners of the landscape that seem to evoke an atmosphere or emotion. At other times they suggest an aspect of the human condition, as if a stage has been set, and may hint at a sense of loss, loneliness or attachment.

 

While it is difficult to define exactly what fascinates me as I choose one image or another to focus upon and develop, I am increasingly drawn to fleeting moments - qualities of atmosphere and light - that I stumble upon in an environment I am familiar with; one which is forever shifting, changing, fragile or threatened.