I was born in Barrow-in-Fumess and lived on Walney Island for much of my life. In 1998 I graduated from university with a B.A. (Honours) Degree in History. Following this I had spells working at the Westmorland Gazette in Kendal and the Dock Museum in Barrow-in-Fumess, before moving to London in 2001. At present I work as a curator at the Royal Air Force Museum in London. I have always been interested in drawing and design, but it was not until 2003 that I painted my first oil on canvas.
My work is primarily influenced by art deco design and the work of Mondrian, Kandinsky and Lloyd Wright.
Artists Statement
The initial stage of the composition of my work is rapid and largely improvised. Once the linear structure is established, after a careful process of revision and adaption, the white layers are built up gradually to give the surface a subtle low relief. This, combined with the lack of perspective, gives the work a more sculptural or architectural quality. Essentially it does not require the viewer to see it face to face.
Each piece is experimental and part of an ongoing process of exploration, using a simple pictorial structure on a horizontal plane. They combine the particular aspects of art that most fascinate me namely line, form, space, proportion, repetition, rhythm, deliberate-random, contraction-expansion and static-dynamic contrasts.
I relate my work to the dynamic arrangement of music and see the lines as representing musical notes of a visual kind. In addition to black and white, the primary colours have the greatest visual purity and this is accentuated by the surrounding black lines and the white space to different degrees. The display of the work in a series, as in this triptych, emphasizes the visual sensation of each individual piece as the eye switches between them.