Him and The Beast- oil & ink 120cm x 90cm (hight x width)

I guess this piece is undeniably personal, but people seem to look at it and say that it's got this dark emotional message behind it, as though all the subtext is depression & anxiety based.

Yes the content comes from somewhere dark, and it does slightly echo the idea of Winston Churchill's 'black dog'. 

HOWEVER, I didn't want the idea to be so narrow as; 'these people are dealing with depression', it's supposed to be about that sort of emotional baggage that we carry with us through our lives, and those memories that sort of grow and add to the negative way that we filter our surroundings.

I wanted to go simple and just have this person, growing up with 'the beast'. I remember being young and feeling like I already had that beast hanging around me, but not knowing what it was, it hadn't quite taken shape, then I guess getting older you start to realize it's presence and study it, to find out what that darkness is. (Thus I have depicted the younger of the blue people with 'the beast' around his legs' and next the older, standing apart from it)

Then I went on to show how you relate to the beast, you carry it with you, and sometimes you come to enjoy it's company, the comfort of it's constant presence, however much this beast can burden you. (Hence one holding it, and the other around it's shoulders).

Lastly I wanted to show how you can become engulfed by the darkness, let it take over, and force you to crouch beneath the belly of 'the beast', still unable to let go.

Him and The Beast

Oils & Ink 

120cm x 90cm (height x width)

SMALL BONES

Just a few small experimental pieces I am doing at the moment, working with pallet knives and mono-printing the background. I kind of feel like they look like tiny animal bones or something.... think teeny organisms or something... not your neighbors recently deceased cat... (they wont know it was you.... stupid cat).

The Lines, Caught & Hung By Lines

The Lines, Caught

May 2010

Acrylic and Charcoal on canvas

96cm x 130cm

Hung By Lines
May 2010
Acrylic and Charcoal on canvas
96cm x 130cm

The Lines, Him

The Lines, Him
April 2010
Acrylic on canvas
140 x 193cm

Again I am working with the radiating lines, however I chose to make the piece more about how we are connected to the world on a more spiritual plane. I have used the idea of these light and dark lines creating the body as well as being emitted from it.
In religious iconography often the saints and prophets or whatever, have over sized eyes and ears (with which it is better to see and hear the lord) and are making symbols with their fingers.
I decided to go with the opposite and have neither eyes not ears or any real appendages, simply the halo around the head.
Think of it what you will, the piece isn't intended to be particularly religious, I simply prefer to put subtext such as that in to create interest and depth about the piece...
I want you to think when you view my work... at least a little.

We Are Lines

We Are Lines
April 2010
Acrylic on canvas (blind I tore off the window)
77cm x 150cm







This is the first from my lines series; it began with the meditation on how we are connected on this plane, so I would sit at the train stop and imagine all the angles my body was creating, and the lines that would extend off these angles, radiating from me and then blending and connecting with my surroundings.

This is a brief and simple impression of two people perhaps just standing near each other, their heads tilted towards the sky, their bodies trailing into the ether. 

Most people view the ribs and gaping mouths as having to do with pain, but it's more to do with baring ones self, they are stripped down, their skin stretched over bone, naked, baring all and releasing whats within.

When Two People

When Two Poeple

March 2010

Acrylic on canvas

96cm x 197cm

Emotions, when they are strong, often explode between people, whether it be love or anger, I wanted to show how this would look if we could strip things back, people down to their skeletons, and pull back a layer of the world to reveal emotions in a visible more tangible way. 

I painted this on my living room floor one morning... After scraping and smudging the paint with my hands and standing on chairs with tins of paint for the right affect I think I achieved a general sense of emotion that comes when two peoeple are together.

It's just a shame my carpet is now red and blue with white and yellow streaks... but it was worth it.

'Heart Back, Heart Front' & Pop Heart

Heart Front, Heart Back

March 2010

Acrylic on Canvas

93cm x 66cm each

Pop Heart

March 2010

Acrylic on canvas

93 x 66cm

The Pervert & The Apple Bobber

The Pervert

March 2010

Acrylic on canvas

100cm x 100cm

Painted with fingers and kitchen knives, These are the first two in a series which represent humanity as skeletons, moving about each other, all interacting and connecting, but in a way we're all just one thing.

The images I use are always quite literal, they look like breasts, not because they are supposed to hint at breasts, because they are breasts and I am representing sex or feeding the idea of devouring or being devoured is often a common theme that goes through my head when painting.

The Apple Bobber

March 2010

Acrylic on canvas

100cm x 100cm

I first used the symbol of the apple to represent life in It's simplest form, we eat the apple, we live to grow the apples which we then devour so we can live so we can then return it into the ground, so we can grow the apples... to live... etc. (it's a cycle comprendez vous?)

So I began this picture with life dangled on a string, the skeleton dancing around it.

The Artist' State

The Artist' State

February 2010

105cm x 150cm

Acrylic on canvas drop-sheet I used to have on the floor of my studio.

At a time when i hadn't painted for months and i reached a point of complete frustration and angst, I became carnal as I rolled and splashed paint over the canvas... to produce something I feel is so serene. It represents the state of mind I was in and the ego which takes over when i'm painting, that calm focus amongst the chaos of emotions and thoughts.