My recent paintings come from an interest in the

human/animal/land dynamic. It’s an interdependent

relationship that’s as old as painting itself. To engage

sensitively with other animals (particularly long

domesticated animals) and the land is to wake up

ancient parts of what it is to be human. It’s not my

purpose as a painter to analyse these relationships

from a sociological or ecological perspective. For me,

the real potential of painting, as a very sensuous

medium, is to be taken to a very different place,

hopefully beyond the rational and analytical frameworks

of social sciences. One part of me is interested in, and

informed by these disciplines, but they don’t enter

consciously into the act of painting.

The challenge of goats-en-plein-aire are immense. So these paintings reflect a pressing world in constant flux; a world in which the painter’s control is contingent upon many elements. I try to hold onto the vitality (often chaos) of the field experience, so the works can appear raw rather than polished.  The marks of paint hopefully carry something of the place in which they were made; not just dirt, leaves, straw, animal hair, grasshoppers but importantly sensations.