Most of my work of late has been landscape based. I have recently at times included the human figure. I don’t consider these works portraits; rather the figures are stand-ins.
My oil paintings are done in the studio, sometimes from my own photos, and sometimes found photos. I often document my rambles, and when a particular image intrigues, I use it as a starting point. They are more about the ‘idea’ of landscape.
My body is the frontier between what I see and what I experience. Just as my mind filters and interprets my experience, so the camera filters and interprets what I see. The photos are an intervention. When I paint from the photo, I reinvent and reinterpret what I have experienced, where I have been, what I have seen.
As I work and re-work the image it is re-embodied, and the meaning of the experience is both exposed and buried in the layers of paint.
I often juxtapose the built infrastructure with the natural, wild environs in my work. This tension is increased as the edges and shape of the canvas compress, restrain, and contain.
The formal concerns of contemporary painting become more important to me as the painting evolves. The image appears and disappears with the intuitive and instinctive responses to the paint, allowing the work a life of its own.