Artist's Statement

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My work connects the beauty of the natural landscape of Wales with the lived human experience of the Welsh.

 

Working predominantly in oil paints, I not only seek to capture the essence of the physical - the geographical and textural landscapes of Wales - but to also invite the viewer to explore the emotional aspects of our nation that lie within, and alongside, its rugged beauty such as the historical, cultural and socio-political contexts.

 

I am particularly drawn to the losses of Wales - and the Welsh response to them: our lost cultural heritage; our fight for the survival of the language; the stolen landscapes; the exploitation of our land, resources and people. I am fascinated by how our response to these losses encourages us - or taunts us - to define ourselves not by what we are, but by what we are not.

 

I believe our landscape sings of these losses and when I paint them, I hear that song. It enables me to feel the colour, form and texture of a landscape physically and viscerally - and it is my job as an artist to enable the viewer, through my work, to form their own personal yet equally profound connective, physical experience not only of the landscape itself, but of the experiences of that landscape too.

 

I paint with words too, using poetry alongside and sometimes within a painting to elicit a deeper, almost synaesthetic response in the viewer - a relationship that ensures the sum becomes greater than the parts.

 

Being a self-taught artist means that my technique is my own, my approach based purely on instinct, intuition and experience - but not constrained by the constructs of formal art teaching. I have learnt from the paints and words themselves, by experiencing mistakes and through careful reflection of my own and others’ techniques.