My inspirations & influences

I have been influenced by many sources - places I have lived and travelled to, friends and fellow artists.  In the past my paintings have been inspired by the landscape and architecture of the area around Stamford, Wansford and Kings Cliffe. and further afield -  Andalucia and Tunisia being firm favourites.

The subject matter of my recent paintings is derived from the Bowthorpe Oak, Fineshade Ash, the Hills & Holes & 2nd Drift (both at Kings Cliffe and the Willowbrook)

I am interested in the idea or picture the mind might have at the moment before perception; the idea of the brain in the midst of arranging imagery and making sense out of it. I react to the subject occasionally aiming to make an abstract equivalent rather than a copy. I am interested in recording how I experience the subject.

Some are painted on the spot & often coming from the drawings. I tend to work linearly rather than from the mass, thinking a lot about hot & cold areas within the picture plane. I build up layers of colour slowly, layers of paint paralleling the tissued, woven, offshoot branches paralleling the rythyms of their making, capturing the spirit of their changing seasons & capturing their tempo, theme tune and variations. Working intuitively, the image flowing through.

Another way of expressing that principal is the image of the moon's reflection on a river. The river is moving and changing, running faster or slower around the rocks but the disc of the moon stays still on it.

There comes a moment in a paintings creation when it 'feels right', it is there. This does not mean that the composition has been fixed, frozen for eternity, but something has fallen into place, The tone rings true - this is what I aim for.

Trees are a great source of inspiration. I am a member of "The Arborealists", formed in 2013, it is a collective of artists who occupy themselves drawing and painting trees and tree-landscapes. 

Below are a selection of pictures from my working environment especially the area around Kings Cliffe.