I like to deal with material that is local, exploring the figure and the landscape as subjects. I don’t use photographs; I paint exclusively from observation.
I regularly go out into the landscape and usually work on the same motif over a period of weeks or months. The smaller studies are always completed in one session and can be easily transported in a pochade box. Working on large canvas or board will entail returning to the subject at the same time of day in similar weather conditions, working for one or two hours in a session. During this process I am always searching for the right way and painting is a document of these different ways and directions. I may scrape back part of the image and work back into it and other times I will work into and over the previous day’s work.
I am trying to express my feelings of being present in a place and not just the visual aspects of the landscape.I paint in all weathers sometimes very early in the morning and late into the evening I’m not solely concerned with the visual experience but with the sensory experience of being there, the taste of rain, the smell of the sea air, the feeling of the sand blowing in my face, and the noise of waves crashing down on the beach.
Recent acheivements
2011 Dr Barbara Oldham MBE award - MAFA Summer exhibition
2011 BA(Hons) Fine Art-1st class
2010 Elected as a member of Manchester Academy of Fine Arts .
Group and Open Exhibitions
2011 MAFA-Bury Art Gallery
2011 Final degree show-Blackburn College of Art
2011 MAFA-Millyard Gallery
2011 Northern Action Group-Lytham
2010 MAFA-Oldham Art Gallery
2009 Millyard Gallery, Uppermill
2009 Saddleworth Group of Artists-Winter Exhibition
2009 Arteology Gallery, Colne
2009 New Longton Artists-Summer Exhibition- Awarded the Titherley Rose Bowl for best picture
2009 Preston Arts Festival –Awarded the Winne Clinton Memorial Award
2008 Preston Arts Festival –Awarded the Gallery Cup: 2nd Prize
2007 Preston Arts Festival- Awarded the Wilkinson Cup: 1st Prize
2007 Garstang Open Exhibition-Awarded 1st Prize
2007 Brownedge Festival –Awarded 3rd Prize
2006 Preston Art Festival
2006 South Ribble Open Exhibition- Awarded 1st Prize
2005 South Ribble Open Exhibition –Awarded 2nd Prize
Commissions
2009 Series of paintings of Coniston Water-Greater Manchester West Mental Health Trust.