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My work explores the notions of the real and the un-real. These are concepts that in childhood are quite blurred. When I was growing up I used to believe in strange far off continents, something that has gone from a physical belief to one that manifests itself in my paintings and resides in the realm of fantasy. These ideas are at the core of my work.

The paintings I create are modern landscapes that reference the history of painting with an underlying fantastical element. A fleeting familiarity can be found in the work that is soon replaced by an ambiguous questioning. I use imagery gathered from many and varied sources. One of the underpinning sources is the voyage of the H.M.S Challenger, a research trip that explored the oceans in the 19th century. The illustrations gathered on these voyages have a brilliant otherworldly feel; although they are of actual plants and creatures they contain a mystery and scepticism. It is this notion of the undiscovered, the other, the foreign landscape that I am searching for within my own work.

For me painting lends itself perfectly to the creation of other worlds, the simple application and layering of paint can create spaces for our minds to drift and wonder.
The two-dimensional surface forces us to imagine a three-dimensional plane where these “maybe-artefacts”, or non-human landscapes exist. These ideas that I work with allow me to explore many different ways of working with the application of paint. It allows me to examine paintings vast history as well as more current methods and trends.

Through exploring these notions of other worlds and landscape I am deliberately referencing the history of painting. This has been used in a number of ways; artists that are directly referenced are Courbet, Bellini and Carot. I use details from their paintings and combine them with new elements; sometimes they become sunken landscape other times a new arrival might be added in the form of illustration from the H.M.S Challenger. In other incidences it’s the focusing on a detail and turning this into the finished painting that creates this feeling of otherness. I employ these strategies to confuse and divert the reading with the aim to create a new experience for the viewer.

uncharted misty island

2008
oil on canvas
25 x 30cm

UnchartedLake

2008
oil on canvas
60 x 30

Tree

2008
Oil in Linen
60 x 30

Oddity

2008
oil on cotton
25 x 30cm