good things take time
In a world where we consume and discard images with little pause for thought, the slow process of painting is the perfect antidote. I like to paint historical figures as I am not interested in competing with the camera for contemporary portraiture. I enjoy working in series which gives me scope to learn about those who lived before us and understand how their work fits into the timeline of history. This could be interpreted as nostalgia, but I see it as a meditation on mortality and life’s transience. I get a bittersweet pleasure from looking back in this way.
I start by researching my chosen subject and then working from appropriated images I paint a number of experimental studies. I use these to create distance from the source image when I paint my version of the portrait. I like to focus on one particular line from their written work as I paint and aim to rebuild their aura, brushstroke by brushstroke, making them ‘alive’ again through depth, colour, texture and light. .