A Brief History

My first paintings of note, from 1968 – 1978, were mostly of a Surreal nature. During the 80’s I focused mainly on figure and dance paintings, and developed the surreal work further in the ‘Deluge’ series – introducing the free brushwork of the figure paintings into more developed compositions.

Captivated with the landscape of North Wales I moved there in 1988, and experimented in oils and other media in an attempt to capture my enchantment in pictorial form. Pastels were the most appropriate medium, enabling me to work quickly with great mark-making potential, on location or in the studio.

Using pastels as if they were oil paint, building up layers of marks that are appropriate to the subject or to my response to the subject, I was able to develop my unique style. The subject matter, whether working in Wales or abroad, became gradually more focused – the movement, transparency or reflections of water (rivers, lakes or the sea) became important, as did the effects of light and pictorial space. And these preoccupations remain with me.

My landscape work, unlike that of many of my contemporaries, does not seek merely to simplify observed phenomena. It is the result of psychological spatial experience of landscape, and it has a strong sense of atmosphere or place/occasion, with a suggestion of narrative and emphasis on the painted surface.

SURREAL
Its not just dreams that are fragments of memory all mixed up; memory works in the same way in our waking life. In my surreal work I link various bits of memory, re-ordering the chaotic pieces into an alternative whole, another reality. The later Deluge series sees the addition of ambiguity to the mix – these paintings pose not only the question : why are these things positioned together? But also : what are they?