Artist's Statement
At the beginning of any painting, my first thoughts are not of the outcome, a complete work, but the sensation one experiences at first sight of the immediate landscape. My own source of experience, the undulating, variegated landscape of Northumberland; with its ever changing vista of tempestuous weather, streaming over from the Simonside and Cheviot Hills in the West, and out over the North Sea has, inevitably, become deeply rooted within my mindset. Therefore I have come to understand the complexities of its nature and interaction with my own senses. In order to transpose this sensation into a painting it has become essential to understand the life force of the landscape, its elements, beauty and primeval nature. Days and even weeks of sketching, failed paintings, countless drawings of observations that somehow seem irrelevant alone are now played out into a re-enactment of past experiences that eventually will become a complete body of work. Importantly, all one has to do is look, really look, not just with the eye, but dig deep into that subliminal human nature that one so often ignores in our time. Being fortunate to live in an area of our land that provides such an abundance of changing weather, land and seascape, all contributing to my experience of nature in its deepest and most sincere sense, I have come to understand my surroundings and somehow myself.

Biography
Born 1964 - Gateshead
1995 - 8 Studied Fine Art at Sunderland University
Currently living and working in Northumberland

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 - Dial Gallery, Warkworth, Northumberland
2002 - Tallantyre Gallery, Morpeth, Northumberland
2003 - The Biscuit Factory, Newcastle
2004 - Line Gallery, Scotland
2005 - Grays of Jesmond, Newcastle