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ARTIST STATEMENT

I am a self-taught artist with no formal training or coaching. I started drawing at the age of two and have continued throughout my life to experiment with different mediums and evolve my style to where it is currently, although it can vary depending on my subject. For the past two years I have created on a full-time basis with various solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally.

I work with two main mediums being soft pastel and oils. I like to stay true to these mediums by maintaining a soft looseness with the pastels and a vibrant, textured surface with the oils. My palette is always minimal and most of my mixing is done on the canvas, wet on wet, to maintain rich, vibrant colours where they glow through one another, and also to achieve a sense of layering. Detail is paramount in every piece of artwork which is created regardless of medium. What you see from a distance is one dimension, up close becomes another. I paint the things I love, be it for the colour of my subject or the emotion it conjures within me and I always choose the medium based on my subject. My personal aim is to capture the essence of my subject and hope to convey to the viewer it's anima, soul. I want the viewer to believe they could stroke the feathers of the flamingo, feel the firmness and roundness of a muscular torso or want to find a poppy field to stroll through. I hope to stir within them a distant memory or a sense of serenity and calm they can escape to from this sometimes hectic world. What we see on an everyday basis can sometimes be taken for granted where it's true and simple beauty is not wholly appreciated. Recreating what I see and compacting it onto a canvas, hopefully, gives the viewer a new appreciation of the subject, as in the 'Colour In Flight' Series, which are detailed sections of various butterfly wings. These pieces allow us to consider another aspect of the insects that flutter freely in our gardens. The colours are rich and vibrant with each brush stroke representing a scale.

I hope you get as much enjoyment viewing my art as I have creating it.