My environment influences my work. I am inspired by nature and the colours she emits. Whether it's blue tits darting around nut feeders in the garden or seagulls on a beach on a sunny day. Everywhere I have lived has left traces in my paintings. I have moved around quite a lot, creating a tapestry of work. 

However, the primary materials do not change. It's just the subject that changes. I paint in oil, preferring linen over canvas for its humbleness and natural skin-like appearance. I try to bring the feeling of my experiences into my work that can sometimes be described as naive and childlike. This is encouraged by the oil paint being applied directly onto the linen with a brush or palette knife and mixing the colours on the canvas as I go along. With a playful rhythm.

Drawing is at the base of all my work. If it’s a city scene, I like to draw in coloured pens, often in circles rather than lines. I have sat on double-decker buses in London and travelled from East to West, drawing from the front seat. I love this because it gives my drawings movement and allows more detail when the bus stops or gets caught up in traffic.

I lived in the South of France for ten years, and the colours of my paintings became soft pastel hues mirroring dreamy sunsets and fiery sunrises. My studio overlooked the Mediterranean and beyond; most days were bright blue skies and occasional thunderstorms that would softly plant double rainbows in the sky that I would filter into the landscapes.

Back in the UK I am close to the Kent coastline and the English countryside, where I love painting seagulls or the common garden bird. I like to merge birds with vibrant backgrounds filled with richer, stronger primary colours. I add in the butterfly and insects to mix up the spontaneous, fleeting moment with the abstract blurred, maybe more questionable aspect of existence.
 

Oil on Board

35x28cm

Framed in a deep black frame