I’m a Landscape Painter, who after a career as an Architect, has returned to a passion for painting, working from both: my studio in Kew, SW London, and my studio on Balcarrick Beach, Co. Fingal, Ireland.
Essentially, I’m drawn to the:
● Composition,
● Colour, and
● Texture
of places, coastlines, such as:
• the roofscapes of The Piazza del Campo in Siena.
• the sky, sea and beaches of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset on the SW Coast, and The Wild Atlantic Way on The West Coast of Ireland.
• the Mountains and Lakes of The Lake District.
But also, the random figure ground patterns of places I have been, such as Siena or Venice, Chicago or New York.
I think that comes from contextual urban planning as an Architect, and a fascination with Matisse’s later figurative compositions. I find working with emulsion paint, I get both the fluidity of working with watercolours and the richness of working with oil paints. I love the effect of rolling emulsion paint on MDF, drawing out, emphasising, the Colour and Texture, by building up layers of paint. In effect replicating the colour & texture full size in its context. Because that’s what I think I subconsciously remember, the colours & texture, and the place. Composition too, probably comes from my longstanding interest in photography.
Typically, I’ll see a view, frame or compose it on my camera, or iPhone, to see if it captures the essence of the place as I see it. Then, to draw on that, breaking it down, or sub dividing the view into a series of vignettes, so as to capture the overall composition.
