Statement
My father was an art historian, my mother a sculptor, so art was always part of my environment. This meant that I was introduced to Abstract Expressionism, pre-historic art, Renaissance Italian and Dutch 17th Century painting at an early age, all of which still hold interest for me. When I went to art school, I attended the weekly classes held by the visionary artist, Cecil Collins. He and Mark Tobey had created a technique that encouraged the abandonment of any conscious control to allow chance and natural expression. I found the simultaneous use of both hands in his process very useful as it trained both sides of the brain – the left and right - to co-operate, creating a harmonious union of the analytical and intuitive.
The way I make my paintings is very influenced by that training. Now I seek to play with the interface between figuration and abstraction, coming in and out of focus through rhythm, colour, shape and texture. The work is never fixed, but in a state of flux. If the viewer relaxes their mind, marks and gestures can describe a face, or a profile, animal or creature. The paintings are catalysts that stimulate the subconscious mind to reveal archetypes, and yet, in a different state of mind, different things can appear. The images are not pre-conceived, I get into my rhythm, applying colour and brushstrokes, aiming to express the intuitive and spontaneous, whilst honouring the rich cultural heritage of my background.
The fact that I am also a therapist, with that insight and focus on transformation may be relevant. For a person is not only physical (figurative and of the surface, the conscious), but also of the abstract (subconscious), so there is a fusion between conscious and sub-conscious. I find that dialogue very engaging as it continuously creates opportunities for exploration and discovery. The Colour and Curve paintings (1994-2006) tried to capture the Sacred Feminine and veered more towards figuration. The Loss series (2006-2007) went further into the subconscious by letting go of having to pin anything down (in a figurative sense) in order to commune with “the other” (whatever that may be). The Manifestation paintings are a continuation of that process.