My Art Practice is based in Edinburgh, and I also have a studio in Pittenweem, Fife.

I enjoy the contrast between town and country, and the subject matter of my paintings usually comes from places that resonate with me in either Edinburgh, or Fife.

I use the relatively traditional media of oil paint on canvas. Thus my practice is bound to refer, and also its place is bound to refer to that which has gone before by artists using such media. My work is informed in part by an immersion in the careful study of the works of successful artists who have used such media. It comes from a great love of paintings, that stems from when I was very young, when I used to collect postcards of paintings by Constable and Turner. I didn’t really know why I loved their paintings, or even asked myself why I loved their paintings – I just did!

As one gets older, inevitably one becomes more analytical. I think about composition, colour theory, space, light, symbolism, place, scale and so on. All the formal aspects of painting. I also think about these things as an abstract painter might do. I love many paintings by abstract artists too, and of course I too have experimented in such a field. It is by choice that my work is ‘figurative’.

It is the infinite variety that I find in nature, in landscape for example,  that liberates me and protects me from repeating myself.

My modus operandi is to follow my instincts. For example, I become aware of a desire to make a painting based on a particular scene or place, and I hold that thought, and then act upon it. I feel it is important to listen out for that desire within myself, and not to try to complicate things too much, or over- think it – and just get on and do the painting.

I believe in the positivity of painting, and that it is an enrichening use of time both for the artist, and hopefully the viewers of paintings, either my own or others’ paintings.

A family friend, an artist, once said to me about painting, and perhaps about life itself  –  ‘It is all a great mystery’. I often think of those words. As an artist, I have no objection to the expectation that one should be reasonably articulate about ones ‘practice’, and also be reasonably informed about what is going on, and I feel I will not disappoint anyone who seeks to analyse what I am or what I do. But a key point, it seems to me, about painting is that it is not ‘words’. I know that sounds obvious, so perhaps my practice is about  exploring that space that is non verbal, and, mysterious.