Paintings

In my paintings, I work mainly – though not exclusively – with water-based media, to which I will then add pure pigment, gold-leaf, collage and wax, onto and with fine surfaces such as tissue and a variety of papers, gauze, unbleached linen and other fabrics. My starting point is almost always the study of natural forms, into and through which I will often place fragments of words, sometimes disappearing, sometimes highlighted, sometimes distressed, interweaving, using a variety of techniques inspired by the mystery of an unearthed palimpsest and, often, tenderly employing ‘scraps’ of pure gold-leaf, inspired by the enduring beauty of an illuminated manuscript.

An on-going concern in my practice is the nature of impermanence – evanescent, transient, inconstant – that is so bound up with the fragility of life and the impossibility of ‘capturing’ an ever-changing form within an image, the very attempt rendered poignant by even being made.