‘Living in the midst of the Norfolk countryside and a stone’s throw from the coast is the perfect setting for making art. As you can see from my work I am fascinated by the seashore and by trees and woods, there is an abundance of both on my doorstep.
The truth is that I don’t want to tell the viewer anything at all. I simply hope viewing the picture conjures up memories, stories or feelings in them, drawing out rather than me putting in. If someone feels a little happiness when they look at one of my pictures, then my job is done.
I am lucky to have a very retentive memory. As I travel round I see things that appeal to me, shapes, shadows, colours and clouds, even perspectives and somehow they are captured in my memory and then they pop out days, weeks or even months later. I don’t pretend to understand how or why this works, it just does and saves on having to use reference photos. I do have a sense of the dramatic and love strong leading lines together with black outline and shadow. Visually, my favourite times of the year are early Spring and late Autumn, the angle and strength of the sun is such that it throws strong, deep shadows across the scene; but overall I guess I am inspired by life itself, quite simple really.’