My practice is based in portraiture. For me, the portrait becomes not only an expression of the subject, but also a reflection of my own emotional landscape. My preferred approach is to work directly from life, but I also employ combinations of photographs and memory to inform my work. I illuminate my subjects in a variety of ways to achieve different moods and tensions. In this research I have tried to gain some insight into human psychology and this is what I strive to portray, both the sitter’s and my own. In doing this I aim to engage the viewer directly. Achieving a 'likeness' is not one of my main concerns, rather it is my intention to both evoke and depict, and I endeavour to both capture and provoke emotion.
My work references the painting of historical artists that includes Rembrandt, Caravaggio and Reubens, and from a contemporary perspective, the work of Ewan Uglow, Jenny Saville, Frank Auerbach, Glenn Brown, and Lucien Freud.
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” - Oscar Wilde
