ARTIST'S STATEMENT

I love jazz. I love listening to it. I have loved playing it. To those not acquainted with the form, the notes can sound like a chaotic jumble, but there is an underlying order to it all, and as the jazz musician improvises, they draw on their detailed musical knowledge to create a free flow of notes around a logical and highly organised framework.

I approach my painting in this way, balancing random markings with structured design elements through a process of improvisation. Initially chaotic elements call out to be drawn together and I respond with new marks, colours and decisions to bring a piece together into a cohesive whole. At times, the process is fast and intuitive, and at others, each mark is a carefully considered addition (or subtraction) to the work. Each resulting piece is a novel response to my initial marks, following no premeditated plan or vision other than that of the moment, which leads to highly varied end results.

This process captures my mood and thinking as I work through a piece and becomes a conduit to express reflections and daydreams that are evoked by the forms, space and light that emerge. I seem to paint that which otherwise eludes me, delving my memories and imagination and seizing on evasive mental impressions of light and colour, emotion or mood, that I then strive to capture in conversation with the media.

I am heavily influenced by the varied music that I listen to as a part of this process, and I evoke my own emotional responses through body movements and their resulting gestural marks. The process of creating and then reflecting on a piece becomes a full-body, viscerally cinematic experience for me, which is what I endeavour to convey to the viewer.