Statement:

I am an artist living and working in rural Ryedale. Although I am primarily a painter (generally working in oils and acrylics) I also use photography and film. I explore the notion of rurality, from the view point of community and the farming sector. The family farm, were I worked for above a decade, is the catalyst and point of entry for my enquiries.

 

I am not  interested in documentation but in the poetical  evocation of this small area in which I grew up . I initially use sketching, photography and film to respond to and discover themes of rurality, many of which are autobiographical. These narratives evoke memories and perhaps challenge preconceptions of rural life. I seek to be an observer of atmosphere and am interested in filmic notions of the punctum and the optical unconscious. In this sense I see film and painting as linked.

 

My main influences come from American realists Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and film producer Gideon Koppel. I also technically reference classical painting (primarily that of painter Caravaggio). I use the stylistic elements of darkening the shadows and transfixing the subject in a shaft of light (chiaroscuro), of dark backgrounds to emphasise drama and light and Classical compositional devises such as foreshortening, perspective and the use of a central main figure. All these elements, reminiscent of classical religious painting, draw attention to a way of life that seeks to maintain its own sacred rituals  and reveres its own holy cows.