Abstraction is connected to who you are...it’s partly about allowing yourself to disappear into the painting and not worry about what we call reality. For this latest series of paintings, I’ve found myself within the interior of the woods. The paintings are figurative yet abstract. It’s a changeable journey on any given day in my studio. I’m using a fairly flat perspective (as there isn’t great distance involved) because of the intimacy of being in the centre of the understory. Sometimes I’m not sure where I’ve been while working for hours on a painting. When I return from wherever it is I’ve gone to, I actually wonder ‘who painted this piece?' It can be a genuine surprise!
I must walk for miles in my studio, backwards and forwards as I study the progress or squint to look at volume in a piece. I read somewhere that an artist makes literally thousands of decisions every minute while painting...at the end of a painting day I'm sure of this!