My initial interest was encouraged by positive responses to my drawings I received as a boy. I quickly developed the idea of myself as the boy who had a talent and, subsequently, the idea of being an artist.

At art school I found the inherent tactility involved with using paint immediately satisfying. Over time I came to view paint as coloured mud. A substance that I could slide over a surface, push and pull it edge to edge, drag it over itself. In my mind there are seemingly endless possibilities of paint application to be discovered. When painting I feel that my body has a compulsion to make particular movements with resulting marks. The imperative of the body, the notion of paint as mud, and the inherent tactility of painting are rewarding characteristics of the process.

The lineage of being a painter interests me. From the cave wall to the present, the subtle and complex historical relationship between painting and the development of human societies and ideas. Painting’s capacity to re-present and reflect the world, and ideas about the world.

My will to paint is energised by the obviously false idea that I can re-present every lived experience with the application of paint on a two-dimensional surface. Also by the conviction to use nebulous ideas to develop imagery and content. Including such things as the spaces between words, and the contemplation of being and not being. I like using paint to attempt to approximate how the world fits together and forms in my head.